Last Few Days

As I started this post, I almost called it a quiet few days...however, the more I thought about this post, the less quiet it seemed!!  Monday, I came home from work sick with earache.  Tuesday was the same, and Wednesday, although I felt better, my equilibrium was WAY off.  No driving for this girl!  A double dose of sudafed, and an allergy pill, and I was on the road to recovery!  I returned to work on Thursday.  Friday, Kristin was to have a girl sleepover, since Bill was gone for the weekend, but she came down sick as well.  Unfortunately, we had to cancel the girl weekend, and revamp our plans.

Bill left about 4:00,and headed off to pick up his riders.  He ended up taking a full suburban full of guys to the mens retreat for church.  I arrived home about 6, had some errands to run with Ryan & Hunter who was hanging with us for the weekend, and then home to start stripping wallpaper in the kids bathroom.  Time for the tropical fishies to leave.  Margaret and I were trying to remember when we did that wallpaper job, and we remembered that I was pregnant with Kristin...so, I'd say almost 14 years is good enough!!  So much for "strippable" wall paper --by 12:30, I finished the one full wall, and still had 3 walls of border to go.   Never again...no more wallpaper...ever!  Kristin helped on Saturday.  As I stripped and did an initial wash of glue, she came behind and did the bleach wash, including the entire wall to the floor.  We finished about 4ish, and I was whipped!!  I took a 30 minute nap, showered, and the kids & I ran into Albany to pick up paint  & supplies and get a quick bite to eat.  As much as I missed Bill...it was kind of fun to spend some time with the kids.

Sunday brought Bill home, and we met up at church.  It was neat to see all the guys so energized.  They left the retreat early to come and set up for church.  There was certainly an air about the place...of peace, of energy, of God, filling up those guys and recharging their batteries.

After church, we headed home for a quick lunch, and a trip to the Sweet Home Theater, to see the AVENGERS!!  It was an awesome movie, and me not being a super hero fan, did really enjoy it!  A trip to Salem to take Brandon (a friend that Bill picked up to take to the retreat) home, and then home to bed!!

Monday starts off early for me, leaving at 5am.  Bill called my about 8am, stating the driveway guy had shown up.  We didn't expect him until late this week, or even next week.  Surprise!!  Our permit for the new drive off the road has not been granted yet, but he had plenty to do with putting a new drive and a parking pad to the barn.  Now, what to do with all the dirt he had to dig out?  OH, yes, we will slope our hill better.  NOW we can cut it with the mower!! YAHOO!  I will say when it's grown in, it will look very nice.  All that new dirt, and I did lose the grape vines, but he was able to go around the lilac bush...hooray!

Check it out...Click HERE for more pictures!!

Two Weeks and Running...

The last few weeks have been rainy, rainy, rainy!  Thankfully, the weekends have been nice, which leaves for lots of catchup yard work.  It seems through the week we are in twelve different directions, and thankful that Bill is around to help with all that running.  With Bill & Kristin helping out some friends with babysitting and running kids to & from the charter school, Bill & Kristin are pretty busy without the extra things thrown in!  The leave at 7:30, drop Ryan at school (Who is really thankful, since he gets to sleep in an hour), Bill drops Kristin off, and picks up 3 of the 5 kids, and heads off to their school by 8am.  At 11:45, Bill heads back, picks up the kindergartener and heads back to the school.  Now that Kristin can get the youngest off the bus at 1:30, that saves Bill one trip!  Back at 4 to get 4 of them, and then take them home.  Then Bill & Kristin come home.  It's a full day for Kristin, as she is a sack rat, and loves to sleep in.  She's been napping when the youngest comes home at 1:30, and then is ready to go with the other 4 get home at 4pm!  To add to this chaos, Ryan has started drivers education.  He has about 50 hours with us, and will finish up to get his license.  He goes once a week to class, who we are thankfully trading off rides with my old teaching partner.  I said to her daughter yesterday "It's funny that you & Ryan are having class together on Monday's again"!  For 8 years they attended Monday home school classes together!

The weekend of the 21st, we had Ryan's football oil change fundraiser.  Being that Ryan was away at a youth conference with his youth group, Bill & I ran all three cars into town to have the oil changed.  Bill took the big truck into the tire shop after the oil change, as we had an odd feeling in one of the tires...opposite the one I had to replace last week.  Turns out that tire is bad too.  We think it was a result of the travel time on the chains in the mountains on our last trip.  Regardless, they refunded the fee for the used tire I put on the week before, and gave us $ for the two front tires, and Bill had all four put on. Not what we planned, but what do you do. I finished with the little truck's oil change just about the time Bill was finished at the tire shop, and we headed into the yard. We had a tree that needed some trimming in preparation for a new driveway to the barn, plus  Bill dropped five more trees...some that had some damage, some that had overgrown into other trees, and one that was rotting from the inside out.  I hated to take out the plum tree, because of my fond memories of my grandfather on his several trips to Oregon, always at plum time!  I will forever remember his plum stain on his shirt telling my grandmother "Nope, I haven't had any more plums"...as he & Kristin grinned with purple lips!

After the trees were down, rather than clean them up, we headed to the chicken coop.  Bill can cut up the trees during the week, but I was afraid of having him cut them down while here alone at home during the day.  

Bill's sign from way back...made a nice addition!

NEW FENCING--INCLUDING THE OLD COOP FOR THE LITTLE GIRLS

The chicken coop pen needed enlarged.  We have 16 chickens now, and the run was too small for that many birds.  While we love to let them free range, we have a neighbor dog who likes to chase them, so only when we are home and can leave Chelsea out do we let them out of the pen.  Bill, Kristin & I spent about an hour putting up new fencing, only to change it a few hours later...and a change for the better!  Bill figured out how to put the chicks in a separate pen, next to the 1st batch and the older girls.  It's worked out great! 
 
Here are our new girls outside for the first time....they loved it!

Our Older Girls--and the reason we do this!!

Little Black

Fuzzy Feet...one of our Dark Brahmas

 Fuzzy Feet...one of our Dark Brahmas

As I was out taking pictures...I came across Kristin and her best friend McKenzie.  McKenzie lives in Washington and is not here very often....so the girls spend every waking moment together, and several nights of sleep over time too!  Kristin works school around McKenzie and takes her breaks on the Washington spring break schedule!  McKenzie is home schooled also, so the girls have a lot in common. 
Of course, Kristin's Dog Lexxi is never far....  I was able to sneak up on them for this first shot....just laying in the sun, chatting about "girl things"!!

Of course, no trip is complete without a makeover hairdo!!