Chanel is getting ready to go to school with me (she likes to be in things, this time it was my school bag). She is also a good helper- I am trying to do laundry and she decided she would rather take a nap in one of the towels I was folding. She likes to be in weird spaces. The other night I woke up with her at my feet, under all the covers on the bed, she had sneezed on my ankles. I was like "what are you doing down there!"

Our New Deck!

So I tried to find a really "good" picture of our deck before hand. The people before us had cats, so they wanted an enclosed area for the cats to be outside. So they put fencing panels around the deck. They also put plywood on top of the deck. Needless to say it was pretty rotten when we started tearing it apart. Thanks to my dad, we were able to build a brand new one. After lots of hard work we can now enjoy our deck and have lots of BBQ to come.

Chanelly Baby

We got a new baby this weekend! Oscar finally said I could have a kitty and got me one for my birthday. Little Chanel was found on St. Patricks Day in Clackamas abandoned in Fred Meyers parking lot with her mom and 3 other syblings. They were picked up by animal services and given to a foster mommy. She named them all Irish names, the mom was Tara and Chanel was Siobhan (shivon). We were able to pick her up after her spaying surgery last Friday. Oscar tricked me and said we wouldn't be able to get her until Saturday, but brought her home to me on Friday! She is so much fun and full of entertainment. She loves to cuddle and play. No litter box accidents yet. She does have pretty stinky farts sometimes though :)

Almost there...

Other than building a deck and planting grass we are almost done with our backyard. Hopefully this will highly increase the value of our home!

Japanese Maples

These are Oscar's favorite trees. We have 18 or 19 of these little guys around our house. You would think we would be no longer in need of more. But... there is this nursery in Roseburg that has the largest variety of japanese maples around, and so we went (for the second time) to this nursery over Easter to pick out a couple more. This is a picture of one of the many very old Japanese Maples on the grounds. The property is spectacular.

Work and Worship, 2007

Over the weekend Oscar and I, along with another 300+ people (including about 30 from Good Shepherd) traveled over the the Young Life camp, Wildhorse Canyon for a weekend of working and worshipping. This was the biggest turnout they have ever had. Jobs ranged from construction to painting to manual digging labor. Oscar and I painted a small out building. There is so much work to be done at the camp to get it ready for its busiest season. It was wonderful to see the Lord has touched so many people through this ministry, and how these people will affect all those who will be coming to camp this summer, and possibly hearing about Christ for the first time. The Lord has certainly worked miracles at the ranch. If you don't know the story of the Rashneeshees either look it up or ask someone about it. It is truly amazing!

The first picture is a gorgeous rainbow we shaw after a brief rain. The second picture is of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (the Bhagwan- head honcho)

Tara's Birthday

I spent my birthday-day with my mom and dad eating and shopping. And for dinner we went to Olive Garden and met up with a nice group of good friends. Unfortunately, I never got a good group shot :(

In this picture: Jen, Michelle, Tara, and Liz

Improvements have begun!

So the first step in our backyard, after removing all previous fruit tree landscaping was to bring in dirt for berms. We had 15 yards delivered to our driveway. Oscar and I quickly set about the task of moving it to the back. The weekend was dry but the dirt was somewhat wet and clumpy. Not the easiest to work with.

Backyard Overhaul

Oscar and I have been doing some serious work to our backyard. We removed 8, yes 8, fruit trees, created some contour for a coming berm, cleaned out load after load after load of gravel, prepared 2 large areas for grass and plant beds, and tore apart only 1/2 of the rotten deck. We still have to bring in fill dirt for the berms, buy tons of plants to replace the fruit trees, and build a deck. Oh ya, and plant a garden. The owners before us build a nice fence around a huge section of blackberries, rather than doing some work to clean them up, they just covered them up. So we are going to make a garden once that mess is cleaned up.

Our Wedding

Our wedding was at my parents house, along with the reception. It was a beautiful, warm night, and everything was decorated perfectly.

Tabor, Czech Republic

Oscar and I went to the Czech Republic for 3 weeks last summer on a short-term mission team to teach English at a camp. We got to stay in a host home with Juri. What a great experience to see the Lord work thousands of miles away from where we normally see God.

Motor Dickey

Motor Dickey was our little black dog. We had to call her a dog because my dad didn't like cats. He liked her, though. She lived with us for 18 years before she died last October. She has a special burrial site in the back woods.

Happy Halloween

Oscar and I at a Halloween Party. Oscar is Kim Jong Il from North Korea (fully equipted with a nuclear warhead) and Tara is Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. It was suppose to be a joke, but not many people got it.

Mt Hood Hiking

We went for a hike up Mt. Hood last fall. We hiked about 14 miles up by Mt.Hood Meadows looking out over one of the canyons. Oscar has a thumbs down sign- that's how much fun he was having and we still had to go back down. What a beautiful day!

Christmas at Our House

This year we had Tara's family (+3) along with Oscar's family (+15) at our house for Christmas Dinner. That was a new experience in our home. We had to buy more plates! After dinner, the Davidson (my extended family on my mom's side, +10) joined for a reheated dinner. Wow! That was a lot of people. We spent Christmas Day at the Dickey's house.

No School Days

We have had a pretty stormy winter this year. Oscar and I both had about 4 days off due to snow. Unfortunatly we will be going to school in July this year, but at least we had fun on our days off. We went to Multnomah Falls and Crown Point one day, shopping in empty stores another, and we made a snowman in our back yard, oh ya, and we went skiing a couple times.

Dinner at P.F. Changs

Troy and Tara

Troy was home for Christmas and New Years. We did lots of fun things. We went skiing, and to a Comedy Club in Portland... Troy got everyone hooked on 24, and we got to hear lots of stories about his time in the Middle East ("lots" for Troy). In this picture we are at a Christmas party with Julie Bush.