Catching Up...

We have had a crazy busy couple of weeks! Here are the highlights with some photos:

• Lisa's mom & sister came to stay with us for Lisa's shower weekend (since Bryan & Lisa were hosting his mom!). They were our first houseguests and we enjoyed having them! Hopefully they will be back after Lisa has her baby!
• We hosted Lisa's baby shower Saturday that weekend! It was a relaxing time to hang out with friends and see what cool gifts Lisa got! I think she will not be lacking on stuffed animals. That evening we went to another shower for a friend of Lisas. It was a shower filled day!
  
• Sunday a family from my hometown 2,363 miles away came over for lunch! They were in town visiting their daughter so came to church with us and then came over for lunch! It was great showing them our home!

• The next weekend TJ and I took a quick weekend trip (thank-you friends!) to Trout Lake, WA. We stayed at The Farm B & B and visited the Maryhill Museum of Art, Stonehenge replica and a lot of little towns on the way home! It was refreshing and relaxing and probably the last chance we'll have to get away until the fall comes.

• We have now officially been at our country home for one year! Under the terms of our rental agreement we have to clean the carpets (because of the cat) so we plan to do that this weekend. We also hope to rent a tiller and get the garden ready for planting. I need to get the tomatoes & peppers started too! This weekend is Lisa's church baby shower and some local craft/plant shows.

Cheryl, Lisa, Donna

Doug, Rosalyn, Amanda

Beautiful Washington View

View at the Stonehenge replica

Washington view...fun, huh!

Seeds!

We have all our seeds now for the summer. Here is a list of all the things that will be in our garden:

Hart Seed Co	Basil	Sweet Basil
Seeds of Change	Bean, Bush	Bountiful Stringless Snap Bush Bean Heirloom
Botanical Interests, Inc	Bean, Edamame	Edamame Soybean butterbean
Amish Land Seeds	Bean, Pole	Old Homestead Bean
Gurneys	Carrot	Carrot, Tendersweet
Plantation Product's Inc	Cilantro	Longstanding Cilantro
Botanical Interests, Inc	Corn, Sweet	Corn Sweet (se) Luscious
Seeds of Change	Corn, Sweet	Hocker's Sweet Corn Heirloom
Territorial Seed Company	Cucumber	CU292 Marketmore 97 Slicing Cucumber
Renee's Garden	Greens: Arugula	Italian Arugula
Gurneys	Greens: Lettuce, Leaf	Leaf Lettuce, Blend
Renee's Garden	Greens: Mix	Monet's Garden Mesclun
Botanical Interests, Inc	Onion, Green	White Lisbon Bunching Onion
Territorial Seed Company	Peas, Sugar Snap	PE632 Sugar Star Snap Pea
American Seed	Pepper	California Wonder Pepper
Hart Seed Co	Pepper	California Wonder Pepper
Gurneys	Popcorn	Popcorn, Japanese White Hull-less
Hart's Heritage Seeds	Pumpkin	Pumpkin Connecticut Field
Seed Savers Exchange	Radish	Plum Purple Radish
American Seed	Squash, Butternut	Waltham Butternut Squash
Territorial Seed Company	Squash, Zucchini	SQ790 Black Beauty Zucchini
Hart's Heritage Seeds	Sunflower	Sunflower Mammoth
Amish Land Seeds	Tomato	Amish Salad Tomato Seeds
Amish Land Seeds	Tomato	Large Mennonite Heritage Tomato Seeds
Amish Land Seeds	Tomato	Matts Wild Cherry Tomato
Gurneys	Tomato	Tomato, Heirloom Rainbow Blend
Amish Land Seeds	Tomato	Kitten Katastrophe Due
Seed Savers Exchange	Watermelon	Blacktail Mountain Watermelon
Botanical Interests, Inc	Zucchini	Black Beauty Zucchini

As you can see we have a pretty aggressive list of vegetables this year! We still are still in the beginner's level of gardening but growing in our knowledge quickly.

One of my new favorite booklets are the "Storey County Wisdom Bulletins." So far we have "Starting Seeds Indoors," "Easy Composters You Can Build," "Grow the Best Blueberries," "Grow the Best Tomatos," " Build your own Underground Root Cellar" and then in the mail on their way to us we have "Wide Row Planting," "Grow the Best Corn," "Controlling Garden Weeds" and "Gardening Answers." They are each about 30 pages and cost less than $5.00 each and are chalk full of super down to earth practical advice.

In the next week or two I'll be starting my tomatoes and peppers in the basement. Today we were at Home Depot and got a shop florescent light so they can have light. I need to ready my Starting Seeds Indoors and Grow the Best Tomatos booklets a few more times!

Spring!

This sight does wonderful things in my heart!

I feel like we've been hibernating since December. I think our house would agree! This week TJ has been quite sick with the flu and has bronchitis. I never knew that the flu could be anything more than bowing to the porcelain god but it is! Fever, aches and pains and a horrible cold is the flu.

We are currently watching the Babylon 5 series. My husband who is ok with Sci Fi but not as enraptured as I absolutely loves Babylon 5! He watched it when it was on tv and is quite excited that I am watching it with him now. It's funny because I'm still pretty neutral on whether I like it or not. It does have an intricate storyline and there are several episodes I am quite sold on. We're on season four right now and I believe there is one more season "and the movies" as all the fans tell me. So we'll see!

Today when I woke up the sky was clear, the sun out and a light frost on the ground. As I drove to work the sky above was clear but in the distance I could see low cloud banks on the ground...low lying (lying? laying? hmmm...) fog. When I got home it was about 55 degrees with clear skies and lots of sunshine!! I took a walk around the house and admired all the green and bulbs springing up. Went out to look at the garden too. Last year I only thought of the plants we could plant. This year I just keep thinking about all the weeds. The garden is completely overrun with weeds and I'm quite overwhelmed! Where do we start? I have no idea but I'm determined to find out! I read somewhere that land that has been left to the weeds takes several years to get to a point where the weeds stop trying to completely take over. I think we have a long road ahead, but a worthwhile one if it means a healthy weed free garden!

Here are some photos of things!

Crocus vernus subsp. albiflorus...never knew what a crocus was till this week when it popped up out of the ground.

TJ helped some friends with a few household fix-up projects...this is his foot coming down out of their attic! The floor was very far away. Yikes!!

Look! I'm Mennonite! I've been considering wearing a headcovering off and on, for no other reason than I like them...got this headcovering off a good headcovering website!

I bought a mini-rose bush on sale and it was blooming during the snow. I think I lately overwatered it because the leaves are all yellow. But I'm hopeful (as always) that it will revive!

Blog Bouncing

I'm sure there is a term for when you look at one person's blog and then use their links to see another new blog, and then keep doing that for hours at a time. I came home a bit early from work not feeling well and wanted something mindless to do. I must have read through 20 blogs already, and need to stop so I can go face my kitchen! Which I need to do because I want to make soup and swiss steak tonight. But blog bouncing does not give me any motivation to do this! Though it does give me some recipe ideas!

I'm fighting a never ending start to a cold. My throat is raw, my body is aching, I feel feverish half the time and I have these annoying little coughs...but it just stays like this forever and ever and ever. I thought my three day weekend of sloth would help the cold go away and it seemed to, but Tuesday morning it joined me again when I returned to work. Bah!

TJ is making supper tonight...fish sticks and homemade fries. He said he cut up 6 potatoes for the fries...we got a new deep fryer for Christmas!

Everything is quiet here. Next month we'll be helping friends move (Craig & Donna) and host a baby shower (for Lisa). And spring break will be at the end of the month. I think March will be fun!

This was a HUGE rainbow from last month. The pine trees in the picture are 100 year old huge trees...to give you a bit of perspective on how big it was. :)

Valentine

I'm copying here a post that Amber posted (http://korensonthecob.blogspot.com). I really like her post and think it really expresses the reality of our relationship with God. Amber and her husband Chris are our Bible study leaders.

14 things I love about my Valentine:

1. He is consistent and never changes
2. He is truthful and never lies
3. He understands me fully…physically and emotionally
4. He weeps with me and is compassionate
5. He always follow through with what is promised
6. He loved me first and more than anyone else ever could
7. He always forgives me and never holds anything I do against me
8. He prays for me
9. He is willing to do anything for me…even die
10.He strengthens me when I’m weak
11.He brings me joy and peace
12.He’s my rock
13.He is always there for me
14.He chose me to be His bride


*** I know that some of you are thinking…”Man, that Chris guy is a pretty awesome husband; Amber is so blessed!” That is true, but I wasn’t writing about Chris…I was writing about CHIRST. Don’t take my word for it…

1. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)
2. ~”In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.” (Hebrews 6:17,18)
~ “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.’” (John 14:6)
3. “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16)
4. ~When Jesus is with Mary and Martha mourning the death of their brother, the Bible tells us “He was deeply moved in spirit…Jesus wept…again being deeply moved within” (John 11:33,35,38)
~ The LORD is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness (Psalm 103:8)
5. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23)
6. “We love, because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)
7. ~“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)
~ “As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us (Psalm 103:12)
~ “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
8. “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27)
9. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
10. ~ “Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40:30-31)
~ “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10)

11. “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)

12. “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.” (Matthew 7:24-26)

13. “…for He Himself has said, ‘ I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,’” (Hebrews 13:5)

14. “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.” (John 15:16)

Snow & Rain

Yet another odd weather day here in Oregon. And more proof that I really am changing elevations when I go to work!

I left the house today and slush was falling from the sky. By the time I got up to 500 ft where I work it was pure snow.

TJ called at lunchtime. It was raining where he was and still snowing where I was.

I left work after sending a message to all our preschool families letting them know the roads were starting to get yucky on the hill. I pulled out of a very snow covered parking lot and drove down a very slushy road, snow falling in thick flakes the whole time. Got on the highway and drove about 2 miles and there was absolutely no snow and it was raining. Then I was the odd car out because my car was covered with snow and no other cars were!

Oregon is odd!

Tonight for supper I was going to make a tuna dish but the sun dried tomatoes in my fridge were all moldy. :( So TJ is making fish sticks and fries for himself, I'll eat fish sticks and a salad, and we'll be quite content! But now we're out of fish sticks...which is very sad!!

This & That

It's already February and this year is flying by. I haven't updated lately because there hasn't been much interesting to say. So this is a random list of thoughts I write tonight. They may or may not go in any logical order. :D

• In January I had an endoscopy, a CT Scan and some more blood work. This is all related to my digestive troubles...silly digestion anyway. There is some definite irritation shown in my stomach, and now I'm keeping a food diary to show to my doctor next month. On a huge praise note my nausea levels are the lowest they've been in 2+ years, and I am enjoying that!

• I had my endoscopy on my 30th birthday! They gave me Vicadin (sp?), the ether and a drug that causes amnesia. So I didn't feel anything, and even if I did I don't remember! My friend Donna picked me up and apparently had a hoot on the drive home. My favorite story is that we were almost home and I was telling her a story. She started laughing and asked if I knew that it was the third time I'd told her the same exact story word for word since we'd left the doctor (probably 20 minutes earlier)? I sure didn't (and don't!) remember telling her the story before. The rest of the evening I lazed on the couch and felt soooooooooo relaxed! So relaxed! It was wonderful...till the next day when I was still feeling a bit loopy and had to get up and go to work.
  

• TJ still loves his new job. It is so wonderful to have him come home each night exhausted from hard work but not from a hard soul day. Now he's training a new guy!
  

• Every morning at work I have to stand in the lobby for half an hour letting families in to the building because the building doesn't open to the general public till after school starts. I am trying to memorize 1 Peter 2 for our Bible study. So a few days ago I was standing there memorizing, mulling that scripture in my mind, thinking very holy and lovely thoughts. And then a parent walked by that always gets on my nerves and I immediately became angry thinking bad things about the parent. They walked out the door and I returned my attention to my very holy memorization, and burst out laughing realizing the stark contrast! Isn't it funny how we can switch so quickly between the thoughts of God and the thoughts of man? I was quite amused for quite some time! And bummed because I know I'll fight my "natural man" until the veil between this life and the next is torn. Oh what a lovely day that will be!
  

• This morning when I left the house I got 20 feet down the drive and looked to my right. Mt Hood was out in all its splendor accentuated by a sunrise of the most vivid and startling pink hues. I almost turned the car around to go back to the house and get my camera...but sadly for you I kept driving. It was so beautiful!

• This morning one of our preschoolers was racing his dad to the door to come in the building. He beat his dad to the door and turned to me as he went in stating, "I have my fast shoes on this morning!" It was very cute!

• We spent the Superbowl with Kris & Andrea, Ben & Katie, Brian and Danny. And of course Rubye & Grady. I brought my quilt and managed to get one square quilted. This group was rooting for the red team who lost. We had really yummy food and greatly enjoyed the company.
  

• TJ and I went to a farm show in Portland. It was three HUGE buildings with lots of tractors and implements and booths about crops and insurance and financing. I was completely out of my element and TJ was a kid in a candy store. We had a really fun time!
  

• We've had lots of freezing fog lately. In the mornings we'll wake up and outside it will be quite foggy and the ground will have frozen from the moisture in the fog. The other day it was so bad that a lot of accidents happened. One van just down the road from us had slid somehow and landed (as though someone picked it up and set it gently down on its side) with it's front tires resting on a telephone pole. TJ passed another accident on his drive to work, and two cars rear ended each other in the lane next to mine on my way to work! I think we both felt very protected that day.

• Our car needs work! Poor little car. The rearview mirror is coming unscrewed, the headlight covers are so foggy our low beams are not that effective, the clutch and brakes need replaced ($$!) and my right tire had a slow leak caused by a small nail! We just found the most wonderful mechanic though! He is a hoot, very old school and not into fancy anything...just a lot of common sense, and I like that! I think he and his son are partners. Today I got my oil changed and an interior filter replaced. And my tire fixed. He did more for us in one day than our Toyota service center did for us in a year!! The good news is that once the brakes and clutch are repaired they should last for a long, long time...one more reason we own a Toyota.

• Having to get the car fixed today reminded me that I never wanted to graduate high school for this exact reason: adult responsibility!
  

• The other morning I was almost to the top of our lane and saw something ahead walking across. I thought it was a cat but in fact it was a skunk! I slowed down and let him pass with a wide berth. Very wide berth!!

• We had a beautiful spring like day this week. TJ convinced me to go for a walk when I got home and it was great. The grass is green, the berry vines are purple, birds were out chirping and the air smelled great! Sunshine and good smelling nature...it was lovely.
  

That's all for now. Sorry I don't have any photos- we've been hibernating this last month!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! It's hard to believe that it is 2009 already; 2008 flew by for us! Here are some of our 2008 highlights:

• Moving out of our apartment and into the beautiful rental house. God has blessed us greatly with this home and we love living here.

• We joined a new Bible study at our church.

• I had some tests on my gallbladder including one that was radioactive...very expensive experience to tell me my gallbladder is healthy. That was good news, but never resolved what is wrong. :P

• We took a class on wine appreciation. Great class, but I don't think we've had any wine since!

• Ben & Katie got married. Yippee! Also married this year were my cousin Laura and my old boss Alan.
  

• I took a quilting class and have a quilt top finished.

• TJ got laid off, then got a new job doing what he really wants to do. He really loves his new job!

• We had crazy snow and ice the week before and of Christmas and were mostly snowed in!
  

We also hosted several dinners here, were guests at several dinners and went on innumerable adventures!

2009 looks to be an interesting year for us on many levels. In 09 we are looking forward to the births of several of our very close friends children, a visit from my parents, paying off more of our debt and continuing to learn and grow as individuals and a couple. Also in 2009 I will turn 30 and TJ will turn 40!

As the good book says, "in his heart a man plans his course but the Lord determines his steps." We leave our 2009 in the capable hands of our Father to determine what will truly come to pass.

Christmas et al

It's now two days after Christmas and we did something we haven't been able to do for a week and a half...drive my car out of the drive, up the hill and and down the road with absolutely no troubles! It is quite exciting!

Yesterday we went to the mall to use a gift certificate from my parents. I think that 80% of the metro area was at the mall, feeling like we did that one more day stuck in the house would not be fun. We got lunch there at 1:00 and had to wait in long lines and circle the food court for quite a while before we found a place to sit. I bet the mall had the highest sales for December yesterday.

On Christmas day we had friends over for a relaxing afternoon, then went over to their house the day after Christmas for a relaxing evening!

I've been off work now for two weeks and TJ for a week, and it will be quite strange to go back to work next week. I think the most exciting thing I've done since being home has been to clean the kitchen! It is reorganized and sparkling! I got a new cleaning book at our Bible study Christmas party and I love it! I cleaned my counters with a 2 part baking soda, 1 part borax & 1 part hot water mix (though I added more water later) and it really worked! They are very clean now and I wish I could wrap them in plastic to keep them clean forever!

My other project was to try and clean up my computer, especially my pictures. I must have spent three days just sitting here deleting blurry photos, cropping and adjusting picture color. I deleted all my online photo albums and reuploaded with the better sets of pictures. I think this computer is growing closer to dying and have copied all my files to disks just in case.

In the new year I'm considering canceling our home phone line and internet access. It would save us almost $60 a month and between work and free wi-fi spots I think it may be interesting to try for a while. I've been trying to figure out an internet connection that would be cheaper, still run fairly quickly and not need a home phone line but thus far have not found anything. I would miss hanging out on facebook though and the convenience of a home internet connection. We'll see!

Hope you all had good Christmas's! I don't have any new pictures to show at the moment because after days of looking through old photos I'm all photoed out!!

Snow III

Well, it's Monday afternoon and we are officially stuck at home. I am anyway...TJ thinks he can get his truck out now that they've plowed the driveway. He tried yesterday and got stuck about 20 feet away...did manage to back up and park again though. Wish we would have bought a shovel, it really would have helped get the cars out.

But there is really no reason to get them out! Both our jobs are closed and to drive on the roads chains are required...and we don't have chains. We went out this morning to play in the snow. It's about 7 inches on the bottom, covered by a half inch of ice, which is covered by another 4 inches of snow! So when you walk your foot goes through a lot of layers! In some parts of our yard the snow is almost up to my knees!

Here are some of today's photos...

My personal favorite...old garbage cans buried!! I think this is the best photo to show the amount of snow we've received as well.

Getting plowed out.
Snow on top of my car.
Coyote tracks in our yard, left there overnight.
We took Sarah out for a romp in the snow...I think she likes it!
These little birds were not scared by us...they just wanted to find some food.
And of course, no set of snow photos would be complete without a snow angel!

The rest of our photos are in our online photo albums...

Bible Study Christmas Party

Since TJ is done with school we were able to go to Bible study a few weeks ago, which was also the Christmas party! We got there a bit late due to my work party but had a really nice time once we arrived! These are some photos of the night thanks to the Korn's (thank-you!).

There was a train going round underneath the tree that the kids were loving!


Thought you would enjoy this break from the snow photos!

More Snow!

A pretty view of the tree farm.

I've lived here 5 years now and still am not quite used to how this city deals with snow...or doesn't as the case may be. We've been having snow since last Sunday night and the snow is expected to continue through mid-week next week. On the news channels they call this storm "Arctic Blast 2008" and/or "The Deep Freeze" and as I type one of our local news stations has preempted its normal programming to run the weather report (still snowing) and a story on a stuck train. Not that the weather isn't important, but really, to halt all programming to report for an unknown amount of time that the snow is falling and will continue to fall all night...really not that newsworthy in our opinions.

I guess we should understand why this is big news. We usually get snow during one week of the year. It's big news and then it melts a day or two later and we forget about it. This year it's going on a week and a half! My school is at the 500 foot level (yes, it's all about your altitude) and was canceled (along with almost all the other schools) all week. I went up one day to try to work and barely made it up the hill because the road was not plowed and had a good 6 or more inches of snow on it!

We knew this larger storm was coming this afternoon (5-10 inches followed by freezing rain) so we had planned to go out this morning to get groceries, wood and Christmas presents. TJ woke me up at 9 to say it had started snowing. I quickly got dressed and we dashed (and I mean dashed!) out the door to go get groceries, taking TJ's truck because it has more weight and agressive tires.

Our first obstacle was to get out of our driveway which slopes up at a 45 degree angle, then has this troublesome dip and another hill to cross before reaching the road. If a car is coming and there is snow on the ground you have to roll backwards down to the bottom of the driveway and start the uphill process again. Next obstacle was the hill by the stoplight. Then the curves. Then the hill going down on a curve. Then the hill going up to the next stoplight. We were doing good till the 4th stoplight on a hill turned red. We got stopped but then had a rough time starting again, cab going forward, tires spinning and the bed of the truck skidding back and forth. Mind you trucks and cars with chains and studded tires were passing us as we spun up the rest of the hill. This was the point we decided that Christmas presents were not that important and we would race through groceries/wood and go home!

TJ happy in the snow!

Made it down the large hill and then had to run a red light at the next stoplight because we (along with two other cars) couldn't stop quickly on the somewhat plowed roads. Made it to the grocery store, got groceries and wood, then had the conversation "which way home has the least amount of hills, or at least the least degree of angle on the hill?" Decided on a route, prayed for a safe drive home, then left. Only skidded a few times, mostly as we had to make it up another hill to stop at another stoplight! The rest of the drive home was uneventful much to our great joy.

If you get nothing more out of this post, hear the commonly used word..."hill!" We decided on a few things. 1) Our routes to grocery stores during snow must change. I think had we tried a different route to a different store we would not have had hills, or at least they would have been less steep. 2) We really need chains. When we lived in the city we could just take public transportation, but now we have no choice but to drive! And since only main roads are plowed semi-often and only gravel is used (no salt), the roads stay icy and slick and mostly snowy until it melts. 3) We are very thankful to be home, in one piece, and have no plans to leave any time soon! 4) The Christmas eve service at church will probably be packed since no church will be open tomorrow!

We did go out for a walk tonight, shuffling through a good five inches of snow! It's been snowing now since 9:00 this morning, and it's after 9:00 tonight! That's a lot of snow, unless you live in the midwest. And then you have salt, snow plows, and flat land!!

View from the window, our footprints still fresh...

That's my rant on snow. And for interested parties, the news is still on (an hour now) talking about the weather, now including the fact that flights are canceled. So rather than tonight's CBS movie, we can tune in to learn it is snowing, will continue to snow, a train lost power and is stuck and flights are canceled because of the weather! And the ODOT cameras show snowy roads. At least we didn't want to watch the movie...

Our First Snow!

Well, today we had our first snow...and most likely our only snow of the season. In true Portland fashion the roads were not plowed or salted and for two to three inches of snow most of the city will be closed tomorrow. TJ won't be going to work and my school was cancelled. Today we drove to the corner store and it took about three tries in TJ's truck to get up and out of our driveway! It's a fascinating world when in snows here. Tomorrow we plan to work on the guest room. Here are some photos from the snowy day...it was sure pretty!

We took the cat out for the first time in snow...I think she may have liked it!

This tree is so pretty generally, and especially when covered with snow.

This is a road near our house...all the roads look like this, even the highways.

A late rose covered in snow...

Our Holiday Party

We had a lovely holiday party today! Our friends came over and spent the afternoon with us. The menu included cookies and hot drinks and lots of good conversation. I tried my hand at jam making too...I think it turned out a bit runny but hopefully still tasty! Everyone got a sample to take home. Here are some photos of our day...

In our craft room.

Our new mantelpiece decor...and yes, those are teeth, many thanks to Ben B! :)The food table.

Katie holding Grady...so cute!

Kris & Andrea, Rubye & Grady

Brian & TJ

The rest of our photos are on our picasa web page. :)

No More School

Well, it's official- TJ is done with school, both now and forevermore. Or at least as far ahead as we can see. He loves his new job, but unfortunately the hours won't accommodate his school schedule.

Now, lest you worry his brain will become dull and rusty, he'll be taking day classes paid for by his employer. He'll also be able to take some online John Deere classes. All in all he is a very happy camper!

In other news...well, there isn't much! We plan to have a "Holiday Open House" this weekend, which means we have two days to get the house clean...nothing like a deadline to get us moving! I'm planning to post photos after the party.

Here is some random TJ and Cheryl trivia for your day: tonight we had beef stroganoff for supper; there was a professional development event at my job today and much of my day was spent sitting in the hallway waiting for people to ask me questions or purchase something...and I was sans book!; TJ changed a transmission today in a self propelled walk behind mower in half an hour, and two weeks ago it took him almost two hours...learning is wonderful! Oh! And today we found out one of our good friends is having a boy- in May. We're quite excited.

That's all for us!

Thanksgiving Holiday

This has been a lovely Thanksgiving holiday weekend. On Thanksgiving we went over to Bryan & Lisa's for a yummy meal and a nice time hanging out. We ate turkey and stuffing and broccoli cheese and green beans and lots of other yummy stuff!

The beautiful Thanksgiving table setting!

Our intrepid hosts, Bryan & Lisa.

My hair is growing out...it's actually longer but my head was down a bit. (This photo is for you, mom.)

Friday I did absolutely nothing while TJ was at work...unless reading and watching the Avatar and Hallmark movies count as something!

Saturday we drove down south of Albany to visit my friend Birdie. She lives in Mexico but is currently in the states with her family getting some feeding therapy for their daughter (see one of my earlier posts). They are staying at her mom's out in the country...it was lovely.
Their friend from Chile was visiting also and made us all a very yummy lunch! We visited all afternoon and played a new game called Go For It. It was a hoot!

Birdie & Son...her kids are absolutely adorable!

Our New Truck

Since we were married 2 years ago we have been a one car family. The first year and a half it was quite easy because we lived right by the commuter train. TJ drove to work and I took the train, because both my jobs I had during that time were right at train stations.

When we moved here last April we learned we were in the public transportation "no service" zone. It's this very rare circle in the metro area that has no transportation service...I think the closest bus is about 7 miles away? It was ok though because TJ's job was right on the way to my work. I adjusted my hours a bit and would drop him off my way to work and pick him up on my way home. It was nice to carpool and have a chance to spend some time together winding down from work.

TJ has a new job now (a wonderfully excellent job I may add) and it is completely impossible to carpool. I am a schemer and can come up with all sorts of fascinating ways to make something work out that otherwise wouldn't, but this is out of my realm! Ben & Katie let us use their truck the first week so TJ could get to work, and today we purchased a truck!!

Our new truck is a 1994 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 from Wilsonville Chevrolet. It's very blue, has an extended cab and a cab cover. I told TJ that now we can go camping and not need a tent! He was certainly not as excited about that idea as I was, but I believe knows he is doomed to go camping next summer! :) Tee hee!

In a nutshell the truck buying experience was one of the best we've had. They didn't try to rip us off, they found a good loan after our original loan fell through (who knew they didn't like older trucks!) and overall we were quite impressed.

It's going to be strange being a two car family now. It will sure be nice though not to have to borrow a truck when we need one, and to be able to help people move now...because once you have a truck you will help people move! Since it's an extended cab we'll also be able to transport at least six people, possibly 8 if they squeeze!

Here are a few photos of the new truck...

TJ and Anthony, the car salesman who is also a mechanic.

We praise God for his graciousness to us and for working out the details on this purchase. To God be the glory, great things He has done!

Blessings Overflow...

Just when we thought there couldn't possibly be more blessings coming our way, more came!

1. TJ took his tools into work today to get his area ready for his first day tomorrow, and found out he's starting at $1/hr more than he thought, with an even better chance of a $2 raise on Friday!

2. He also found out that his job will let him take a half hour for lunch and leave a half hour early- so now he can finish school this quarter! He'll leave work at 4:30. School starts at 5:00, so he'll probably still be late, but not horribly late.

3. We will be able to purchase the truck we saw this weekend! Our first bank we thought our loan was approved at denied us because of the age/mileage of the truck, but the dealership found another credit union who approved us with our original terms. We'll pick up the truck on Friday after we get off work!

The only hard thing that we've dealt with lately is my headache. You know the "song that never ends...it just goes on and on my friend." Well, I have the headache that never ends. I think it's been about 6 days now, sometimes better and sometimes much worse, but always there. I've been taking lots of ibuprofen and aspirin, but I think tomorrow I will go drug free and hope that helps? It's not a migraine either, which is odd because my headaches usually are. Ah well, if that's the only negative in our lives I'll take it! :D

Blessings Abound!

Friday we learned TJ got the job of his dreams! But the blessings didn't end there.

Saturday morning we took our car and Ben's truck up to Vancouver. Our friend Donna previously worked with a lady named Deb. Deb is getting married in a few weeks and is working on combining her household with her soon-to-be husband's household. We drove up to bring home a lawn mower & table. We did not end up getting the table, but amazingly, here is what we came home with:

• a self-propelled mower
• two benches for our current table that match it almost perfectly
• two lamps
• plastic shelving we'll use in our basement
• a beautiful rug
• a dirt devil vacuum broom
  
• an antique stool (just like the one I grew up with!)
• wicker drawers
• a indoor/outdoor propane heater (with 4 cans of propane)
• a bag of charcoal for our grill
• three folding chairs
  
• and probably the hugest blessing of all...2 GARBAGE BAGS OF FOOD!!

Now, you may be saying to yourself at this point, "that is a random collection of things!" But almost all of these things were on our list of things to eventually purchase. We like to have people over and never have quite enough seating, so because we have the benches and folding chairs we've expanded our actual chairs by 7! We'll certainly use the heater since this is a rather chilly house, and had been pondering getting a rug in the future. We had been planning to save up for shelving for the basement, and the other items will fit well too.

I have to say though that the food was one of the largest blessings especially coming off these months of layoff. We have been in survival mode and only buying just enough groceries to get us by. I've been using up our "stocked up" supplies and well. Here are the before & after pictures:

BEFORE...


AFTER!

We will eat everything too, it's all so yummy!!!

In the afternoon we found a store that will later help us grow garden starters inside and can help us with some of our outdoor gardening too!

We left the garden place and went down to Wilsonville Chevrolet to browse around their lot and think we may have found a truck. It is a 1994 Chevy 1500 extended cab with a cab cover (I forget the real name) that can also be removed. It was previously owned by only two people and though it has 158,000 miles on it is in good condition. We had been pre-approved a few months ago for the amount through our bank, and are just waiting for the business week to begin to work out the details. They are holding it for us.

We are feeling overwhelmingly blessed at this point. I think the feeling is so hard to describe- it's been a challenging few months as TJ searched for work and we tried to make wise financial decisions. It's sort of like holding our breath for two months and now completely exhaling! I'm sure in time we will balance out. :)

Though this verse is taken a bit out of context, I think it does fit here:
9"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! (Matthew 7:9-11)

Thank-you all for your prayers and words of encouragement! I hope your faith is increased by walking with us through our journey!