The Randomness of it all

Ok so this post is rather random...but that's kind of how my life is. It is full of randomness.

Our weather has been horrible. Showers mostly. It has been really windy the last few days also. We do get short breaks in the rain. Like right now. Its sunny, very windy, but the sun it out. I can see the next rain storm coming in the distance. The kids are currently playing outside, have been for almost 2 hours now!

On Sunday it was raining so hard that it formed little rivers all over our yard. We have ruts in the bark dust now. It really made quite a mess. This picture was taken at the height of that down pour.

One of the kids favorite things to do these days is snuggle on the couch and watch a family movie. We watched Ratatouille the other night. Lucy made it to the end.....my poor boys could not quite get there.

So here is a good one for ya! Marshall and I went out to check for eggs after our workout yesterday. We have been getting one a day. At least someone is contributing to the farm....As we were walking away we hear "Cock-a-doodle-doooooo" We both stop and look at each other, what was that!!! So we run over to the chicken coop and look at all the chickens, no one will fess up as to who that was. We start walking away again and we hear the same dang thing!!!

When we bought the chicks we were told that they had been sexed and that they were all girls, there is a small % chance that there may be one male in the bunch....we did get 25 after all. Well my friend Cathy who has the other 17 hens from the batch ended up with 2 roosters. So that should cover that small % of possible males....guess they were wrong again!!!

So here is RED our ROOSTER!!! We will allow him to rule his kingdom of hens unless he starts getting really mean and bossy. If that starts to happen the BBQ will be his final resting place!

I guess that would explain why he is not laying any eggs......

Awesome 3000

This weekend Lucy ran in her first Fun run. She did it with her friend Tulah. The run raises money for Salem/Keizer schools. Her race was 1.5K long, only with other kindergartner girls.


Lucy and Tulah pre race!

My girl! She made us so proud! I love the look on her face, she was so excited to see and hear us cheering her on!

She ran the entire race also!

Lucy and Tulah post race...notice the sweat on their foreheads!!!

Lucy, Tulah and Caymus with the big bear...not sure what his name is or who he represents, but hey who doesn't want their picture taken with a large fake animal with some stranger inside!!!

We spent the rest of the weekend cleaning house, yard work, errands, church, eating, watching movies and staying out of the rain!!!

Our First EGG!!!

We have had these dang chickens since October. We estimated that they would start laying around Easter. My friend who bought the chicks has the other 17 that she had ordered and they started laying while I was in Texas in the end of March.

So we have been eagerly waiting for them to start earning their keep. They got a free ride for the first 6 months, but now we need to see that they are worth the feed I give them each day. We have been threatening them daily. "If you don't start laying soon you will be dinner!" or "Your going to die!!!" and a few other nice encouraging comments.

I even got them new food and cleaned out their coop last weekend hoping that may work.

Today we had our first egg......

April Showers Bring May Flowers

That's what they say, so I hope its true. The rain has been coming down like its going out of style. May is just a few days away and my flowers are blooming!
I just love this time of year. All the color. The freshness of the season. So cheery!
Since this is our first spring here in this house it is very exciting to see what will come up out of the ground. Also to see what color everything will bloom in.
I am so looking forward to summer here!

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Weekend Update

On Friday Lucy’s class had “Presentation Day”. Caymus and I went down to watch all the kids do their presentations. They could tell a joke, read a book, talk about a picture they drew, sing a song, do a trick….the list goes on. Lucy chose to read a book. She read “Green Eggs and Ham”. That’s a quite a book for her first presentation! She was a little shy when she first went up; she hid behind her hair-always a good hiding place! Then after a few pages she warmed up and rocked it!! She read that book flawlessly! I was so proud! Nice work Lucy!

This is what Caymus and I look like while Lucy and Marshall are away all day long.

Saturday we went to a friend’s 6th birthday party. Good times! Then we ran our weekend errands; Home Depot, Wal Mart, Winco…. Stopped by Justin and Cathy’s to get some eggs sense my stupid chickens won’t lay eggs!! We are counting down they days till we just whack them…they better start laying soon or death is in their future.

Sunday was a full, full day. We hit the early service at church, then ran home and took the boat out to the river for a “test” run. We wanted to make sure the motor would run, fishing poles would work and so on. All was good and we enjoyed a nice picnic on the river.

The rest of our day was spent doing yard work and just enjoying where we live. We are so blessed to have found a home that has everything we have ever wanted. This is a paradise for us!

Now Monday is here, back to school and work for all. Marshall is working a 13 hour day today. The kids and I are on our own for dinner….is cereal ok? I hope so!

Work Day

Today was Caymus' class field trip to plant flowers at the local park. 40+ preschoolers loose with shovels and dirt!!! What a mess! It was fun and very productive. It did not rain - first field trip yet with no precipitation! The kids were all well behaved and we planted a ton of flowers! They worked so hard and fast that they ended up with about 30 min to play in the park.

After we got back to the school, I went next door to pick up Lucy from school. She was so excited to get called from the office to leave early. We then went back get Caymus and were off to the Academy for "bring your kids to work day". The kids have been looking forward to this for a few weeks now. We had lunch with Marshall and his team. Then I headed home to get to work myself.
The kids got to watch a baton training class, very exciting and intense. Then they got to use the batons on one of the instructors. They also got to do some DT drills with the class. Both had a blast and were amazingly well behaved.
Marshall was a very proud papi today!

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Lucy has had a loose tooth for days. On Friday it was ready to go, but she desperately wanted to loose it at school - I guess they get a cool tooth necklace to bring the tooth home in and they get to go to the office. So she did not touch it all weekend. Monday morning I checked it and told her that if she did not loose it at school I was pulling it that afternoon. So she was ready and determined to have it out before 2pm when I pick her up.
A few bites into her breakfast and it fell out. At first she was excited and shocked but then the reality hit that she missed her goal by 20 min. The tears were rolling and there was no comforting her. Poor kid tried so hard! She only has 20+ more chances to loose one at school. Maybe next time.





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Camping - Silver Falls, Oregon

On Friday night we headed up the hill to Silver Falls State park. It is only about 25 miles from our house now. What a treat! We love camping close to home. Marshall got home at 5:30 and we were set up and eating dinner by 7:15pm!
After dinner we watched a family movie and went to bed.

Our family picture in front of South Falls - 177ft waterfall. So beautiful! The trail goes right behind the fall and on the back side there is a cave....the kids fit just right!

We hiked a 2 mile loop from South falls down to lower South falls and back up. The kids were troopers! We only stopped a few times and never had to carry either of them!

My boys! How I love them.
This is at lower South Falls - 97ft water fall.

Silver Falls State park is a 9000 sq mile park, the largest in Oregon. It has a total of 10 waterfalls within the park. There are a total of 25 miles of hiking trails. There is also a camp ground, horse camp, group camp and several ranches you can rent out.


Marshall hiked so hard he blew out his soles!!! I don't know if the fact that he has saved these boots for more than 10 years has anything to do with it, but I thought it was soooo funny! He has worn them off and on over the years, but this was the first time to hike in them. Guess that's what happens when you save stuff!

Back at the camp site we had a nice fire, roasted s'mores and had yummy pork chops for dinner.

It actually did not rain on us the entire time! Shocker!!! (it did pour when I was packing the camper though)

Kids waiting for their breakfast in the morning.
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We made it back home before noon on Sunday, cleaned up the camper, put everything away and then were able to enjoy the sunshine!

We went to Home Depot and bought all our veggies for our garden. We also got all the stuff we needed to build out Tortoise habitat.

After a nice BBQ dinner, we broke in our new fire pit we built last week. The kids were so excited to have a camp fire at home! Marshall was very proud also!

Now we can roast s'mores every night if we want to!