The Newest Addition to Roachopolis!

We welcomed Houston to our family on Sunday night. She is a 3 year old Calico. Very sweet, mellow kitty. She is an out side cat....but we are letting her in the Garage and office.....
Our next door neighbors moved to Hawaii and could not keep her. The kids have been BEGGING me for a kitty for some time now and we thought that this was the right time.

The kids are totally in love with her. They have each written a few stories at school about her and were busy drawing her pictures yesterday. Very sweet.

Our farm is growing....1 dog, 1 cat, 1 tortoise, 5 chickens,and about 16 fish! Oh and 4 humans!

Cheers!

After a long hard day working in the yard, a nice frosty beer sure does hit the spot!
We had great weather today so we really took advantage of it. We chain sawed, hedged, raked, and hauled stuff all afternoon.
Roacheopolis is looking good!

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Back to Normal....

....what ever that is.

We all made it back home from the great northwest. I flew back to my parents house on Friday and spent all day Saturday hanging out with my brother, sister in law and mom while my dad took the kids to the beach. Us girls ended up spending most of the afternoon quilting. It felt so good to be crafty again! It has been to long and I really missed it.
Back at home Marshall was having his annual man game. He and some friends go to Eugene and tail gate, watch the game and then out to dinner. They ended up having a man sleep over also. So cute! They had a blast and are planning for next year already.

The kids and I drove home Sunday. We then spent the rest of the day enjoying our home and yard. Our neighbors are moving and gave us a bunch of their pond fish, and some of their pond equipment. We got that all set up and now have a school of fish in our pond.

Marshall had Monday - Wednesday off this week so he busied himself with projects around the house and yard. I worked and helped in the yard some. Wednesday we had our trees sheared. That was fun to watch. 27 guys out in the field whacking away. From the deck all you could see was blades and branched flying. We then also pruned our arborvitae that boarders our property. We started on it by hand but that did not last long and Marshall had his chain saw out and finished the job in about 30 min!
The kids are back to school and soccer practice. They are enjoying both very much.

This Saturday we will be heading to Eugene for the Duck game. Should be a great family day!

Ok now I am caught up and can check that off my to do list!

I hope I will have some pictures to post here soon! You can check my parents blog for some pics of the kids at the beach! www.beachbuns.blogspot.com

Calgary Roundup!

Tuesday night was our big Networking dinner and Shoot out. We had a great turn out, about 75% of the attendees came. We had a nice bus ride all together and then the real fun began. We arrived at the Heritage Park and were directed upstairs of the old Dairy barn to the bar. Everyone got their thirst quenched and some good networking done.
A shot rings out...we hear yelling, we are told to get out of the barn and "sit" down. The outlaws had just robbed a bank and their horses were stolen while robbing the bank. They are sure its one of us.....
This begins a good 45 min shoot out and brawl, good vs. bad. In the end there is only the sheriff left standing!
We then got our fill on great food and great networking.


Our team, gosh don't we look good!!!

With the "real" cowboys!

Poor Paul.....

The DeltaValve guys

The whole group that came to the dinner.

The bad guys getting ready to hang the horse thief....the thief is one of the refiners here at the conference. That's a make shift tree.....what a riot that was! I was laughing so hard I had tears!

My buddy Evan, he lives in Switzerland and this is his version of a Cowboy hat. Isn't he a good sport?

Cowgirl

Getting ready to head out for our Networking dinner.

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Calgary! Coking Conference

Here we are in Calgary! YEee HAWWWW

We arrived yesterday in the afternoon, nice short non eventful flight. On our way to the hotel we stopped off at a western wear store and bought cowboy hats to really get in the spirit.

After set up we went out to dinner wearing out hats and the hostess asked us what was up with the cowboy hats and my reply was "isnt that what everyone wears here?" She had a good laugh at our expense....oh well we were loving it!

Monday, today was our Coker process training and set up day. Wow, I ended up having to compleatly rearrange the floor plan for our exhibit hall. We had a vender come in with equipment that could not get in the hall with out a very heavy fork lift driving in a hall not made for that kind of weight. Bummer. So we were able to just set the equipment right inside the door and build the hall around that. We did it and fast, great sucess!

So here we go into Tuesday! We have a networking dinner and entertainment at a cool old restored dairy barn. We will have a live shootout and wild west kind of entertainment! Should be a real blast and I will deffinatly have some pictures to share!

Jane and I, we make good cowgirls!

Clint Black and Toby Keith were staying in the hotel and wanted us to take their picture! They really look different in real life....

Soccer!

The kids both had their first soccer games on Saturday. They both had a blast and played so good! Caymus scored a goal 4 seconds into the game! He had a total of 4 goals. Watching kindergarten soccer is one the the most entertaining things I have ever seen!

Caymus the soccer stud! Here with his friend Mason (in the red).

Lucy got to the goalie for the first quarter of the game, she stopped the ball 5 times and was a very alert little goalie!

My girl!

Soccer stud the Moose!

As soon as the games were over we dropped Marshall off at home and hit the road to my parents house in Washington. Long drive as always, but smooth, light traffic and only one stop!

Marshall meanwhile went down to Eugene for the Ducks home opener. He was one of the first ones in the stadium and got field passes to be on the field when the players came out. He was really excited to get on the field and be a part of all the excitement.

Here is the tunnel and the duck. So cool! I was so excited for him! What a cool experience! GO DUCKS!!!

"RED"

Unfortunately when you attack one of our team this is what happens to you.

I went out after school to feed the chickens and let them out for a bit. When I opened the door they all came running out. The rooster was getting a little aggressive with me, so I shoowed him away and he went after the kids. He got a hold of Caymus' ear and then chased then into the field. I kicked him and got him away from the kids.
I came in and told Marshall what happened and we decided we could not have an animal attacking our kids. Sad but that's life.
I was not really prepared to butcher today, but I did the best I could. I hope he at least tastes halfway decent!

Moral of the story is....Don't F with the Roache's!!!

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Caymus' ear after our rooster attacked him.

Fyi rooster is now dead.
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First Day of School and Soccer

Last Monday was both kids first day of school. Lucy has started the 1st grade, she adores her teacher and could not be happier! Caymus has begun Kindergarten! The school provides half time kindergarten and offers an enrichment program that fills the other 2.5 days a week, so we have him enrolled in that also. This makes for a very confusing schedule! He goes to one building with Mrs Maben 2.5 days a week and another building with Mrs Thomas the other 2.5 days a week. Both teachers are wonderful and I am feeling like he is going to get an outstanding education this year!

He was a little grumpy the first day. He is trying really hard not to smile for me here!

Both kids, first day 2009!!

Lucy was all smiles! She loves school!!!

They are both playing soccer this year. We have practice every night for 2 weeks! UGGGG Lucy practices T and Th, and Caymus practices M, W, F! Oh boy. Once games start this Saturday, the practices will not be as often, good thing cause I did not think we would make it otherwise!

Lucy's first practice. She looks like a soccer player!

Caymus my little stud!

Back to the Future

Here are some pictures of our trip to Mt. Rainier, Washington. My brother Reid has been working at the Alpine Lodge for the last 2 years and this is the first time we have all made it up there to see it and him. We have seen him, just not in his work environment!
We dashed up there last week for an over-nighter. I was thinking it was a tad bit closer than it actually is....the trip there took 5 hours and the trip home was just under 4.5hrs.
We went mid week so it was very quiet up there. Beautiful though!!!
We went on a little hike just after we arrived, the clouds had rolled in and the kids wanted to hike up in to them.

Caymus mid way up one of the ski runs.

Grandpa Gary and Lucy. He taught her how to properly get on a chair lift. I remember my first time on a lift and it sure would have been nice to practice before hand!!!

We had a good chuckle at some of our mis-haps over the years with chair lifts!

The kids and Tio Reid got a ride in a fire engine. I love the look on Lucy's face!!!

Part of the reason we went up to the mountain with my folks was for Caymus' birthday. So we took over the lodge and had a party!
Tia Des came along for the fun also!


The next day the sun came out and we got to see the mountain! So beautiful. We enjoyed a nice breakfast in Reid's restaurant and then headed out to go hiking.

My dad a little brother. Kings of the mountain!

My girl! Apparently she is not a huge fan of hiking....or so she says! One thing is for sure, she is cuter than a bugs ear!

Caymus on the other hand loves it! He learned everything he needs to know about hiking, mountains and snowboarding from his Tio who he tagged along with the entire time.