As Our World Turns

As you can imagine, our world revolves around three grandchildren – two very active ones and one unborn. Here is your first glimpse of the unborn one:

I know, these ultra sound images are hard to see. The head is on the right and he/she is sort of looking our direction. It was a whole lot more interesting being there in person. I took Jana to the Pregnancy Care Center to get some literature on how big the baby is and what features are developing because she left all this stuff at home. They loaned her a book and then asked if she would like to have an ultra sound. Normally they do not do this but they need models (i.e. guinea pigs) to practice on. Actually the nurse was very good and very skilled but she hadn’t done a lot of ultra sounds on 3-month fetuses. So we made an appointment and they let all of us into the room to see the actual thing up close and personal. Very amazing!

Before I forget… if you happen to get Highways Magazine, look in the May issue, page 13. In the picture at the top promoting the 2010 Rally in Louisville is a picture of our RV. Its not hard to find -- the little diminutive fifth wheel in the midst of all the BIG Class A’s – right in the front row of the picture. That’s us. Kind of neat, huh? If you don’t have the issue and you want to check it out, go to this web site. I think the link will work for anyone – not just Good Sam members. It will take you to an Acrobat version of the May issue, then scroll down to page 13.

http://d7wompu62zbx1.cloudfront.net/digitaleditions/highways/2121895_DigitalHighways1005.pdf

Weather? Hot! In the 90s and sometimes high 90s. However, for my friends in the east, the humidity is low – you don’t boil to death in your own sweat, you just melt.

One day we went to a children’s festival in Jacksonville. The kids enjoyed it and it gives me an excuse to post a few more pictures of them.

Mother Goose is talking to Lilly and Josiah. I have to admit she really looked like Mother Goose – however that is supposed to look.

Lilly is a ham when it comes to pictures. She can bat her eyes, tip her head and get whatever she wants. I hope she outgrows that.

We tried out a new playground last Sunday evening. Josiah is pretty proud because he can go from one ring to the other without being held up. Lilly still needs help.

But she’s getting pretty bold about reaching out for the bar and sliding down.

The BIG project for us was the yard sale last week. Even though we – mostly Joyce – had sorted everything out weeks ago, it still took lots of time and effort to lay it all out – and I mean ALL. Look at this mass of stuff, from one house.

Back under the tree are a couple sales ladies. Josiah and Lilly sold water, juice and sodas. They did pretty well because it was a hot day. We got rid of a lot of stuff and gave the rest to a family having their own yard sale. At least it is out of the closet and garage.

And so it goes. As I said in the last post, aren’t grandkids wonderful? Yea, they surely are.

Aren’t Grandkids Wonderful?

Ginger, Jana, Josiah, and Lilly arrived on schedule on our wedding anniversary. We had the RV camped at Champoeg State Park near Newberg. The kids had a nearby yurt for their abode. In true Oregon fashion, it rained the day they arrived and a little the next day. But that didn’t keep us from enjoying a campfire and the ever popular (and sugar-level inflating) smores.

Ginger and the g-kids are trying to keep warm, out of the smoke, and still roast a marshmallow. Nothing keeps a true Oregonian camper from his smores!

The kids enjoyed the camping, the Junior Ranger program, and the Ranger guided twilight hike. Then on Saturday we moved our camping to – guess where? Back to Lebanon!!! This time we camped at Gills Landing where we began our Lebanon experience 11 months ago. This time Jana and the kids slept in a tent. I should add that by this time the rain was history and temps were in the mid 90s. However it cooled down at night so sleeping was comfortable.

Our primary purpose in being there was so the kids could get swimming lessons from Lorlee, a friend in the church there. This we did each morning at 9:00. Actually it worked out for Lilly to be in a regular class learning basics like keeping her face in the water. Lorlee worked with Josiah teaching him to turn his head to breath while doing the crawl stroke.

We did various things after the lessons like playing in the river, going shopping, and taking a trip to the top of McKenzie Pass. The top is a huge lava bed with views of mountain tops for miles in every direction.

Beyond Joyce and Lilly are Mt. Jefferson and Mt. Washington. On the drive up we took a side trip to hike into Proxy falls. It is an absolutely beautiful hike. Actually there are two falls about a quarter mile apart but hard to get good pictures.

Snow is always a fascination for kids – especially kids from Los Angeles. There were still some patches near the top so we stopped for the kids to play.

On July Fourth we attended church at Lebanon FM, then drove into Salem to get haircuts from Debbie, a friend of Ginger’s. Then it was off to Joann’s house in Stayton for a barbecue. Stayton has a very good community fireworks display. So off we went to the high school to sit around ‘til dark to watch fireworks. But it really was good.

Two little kids were enraptured. It was after midnight when we got back to Lebanon and they were sound asleep in their car seats. Last year Lilly didn’t like the noise. This year it was okay.

We drove home Thursday afternoon. It was sure good to be back in a “big” house. Since then we have been in recover mode – resting, cleaning, doing laundry, playing with the kids. It will be nice to be home for two months (except for a week at Fir Point and maybe a trip to the coast).

One last picture I must show you.

Isn’t she lovely? Doesn’t she look like she is putting on weight? Well, she is. No, it’s not fat; it’s a …. yes, a baby. Due date is January. Our plans are all topsy turvy now. But think happy because we are. What a surprise!

As always, stay tuned. There will be more exciting things to come.

Redmond Rocks

So we were home for about 36 hours. We reset the timer for the garden so it would get more water, and installed the timers for the lawn irrigation and water for the photinia. I mowed the lawn, Joyce did laundry, took the pickup for an oil change, and loaded up for kids and grandkids.

Thursday morning we left for Redmond (that’s on the east side of the Cascades for those who aren’t familiar with Oregon). Our church’s Annual Conference was Friday evening and all day Saturday at the Free Methodist Church there. It was typical Conference – a little perfunctory business, some good inspiration, lots of visiting, and (of course) good eating. So that’s all I’ll say about Conference.

I need to add before I forget… the weather was (and is) great. Temps in the 80s, sunshine, wonderful. Wonder if it will stay. Now I want to post a few pictures.

We stayed with friends in their “modest cottage” on 20 acres east of Redmond. Actually their home is gorgeous and designed for entertaining. We had the guest suite with our own bathroom, huge shower, hot tub, gas log stove (but we didn’t need that), and all the luxuries to pamper us. Tough when you have put up with that!!!

This is the view from their front porch -- looking west toward the Cascades. The mountains are (L-R) Broken Top, South Sister, Middle Sister, and North Sister. I just realized I cut off Mt. Bachelor farther to the left.

Mt. Hood is just to the left of Joyce. Just a little tip of it can be seen from their front yard.

Our hosts were Duane and Sonda to the right. The man next to Joyce is Arnie. He is the area representative for the Free Methodist Foundation. I met Duane and Sonda on a trip to Ensenada, Mexico about 10 years ago. They are simply wonderful people whom God has blessed and they honor him in all they do.

This morning we attended worship in Redmond at the Mt. View Church where Annual Conference was held. Their building is about a year old and is very, very functional. And now at 11:00 pm we are sitting in the Lebanon Church parking lot having our last “fix” of internet. Tomorrow we are looking at a house in Salem, then on up to Champoeg State Park for a week of camping. The kids will arrive Thursday.

So, until the next time I have internet… who know when. Blessings.

Nice Weather At Last

It has been a very busy week in Lebanon. We visited lots of people – mostly over a meal so we are stuffed and probably gained 10 pounds. The only meal we have eaten in the RV was a dinner last week and that was left over food from the potluck last Sunday (we ate most breakfasts here).

We have had rain and cold weather; we have had wind and we have had sun. Today was a nice sunny day. Yesterday ended okay but started out with rain. I preached yesterday. Ginger was here and she took us out for lunch.

I took Joyce to see “A Team” tonight. She was thrilled! Yeah, right! I wanted to see it so she tolerated it with me. It is pretty good – lots of shooting, blowing things up, and very improbable heroics. But that is typical A Team.

Tomorrow we have a couple meetings, go home for a couple days, then to Annual Conference. More about that later. Blessings.

One Last Time

We are in Lebanon. We are sitting in the rain. So what’s new? Well, for one thing the rain DID go away for a few days and we had 80* weather – in Grants Pass. We got to Lebanon Saturday and the weather was nice – shorts weather, even! But today and tomorrow is rain. Then… well, maybe some more nice weather.

Last week was mostly the usual – cleaning up, getting things ready for sale or whatever happens. Steve (a carpenter friend) came over and helped me install a new back door. I decided to get a pre-hung door because the other one wasn’t fitting correctly. Joyce started her own project. A long time ago she cut a flowery vine out of old wallpaper, then glued it to the wall in the bathroom – sort of a decorative touch. It is had outlived it’s usefulness so she commenced to take it down. Only problem is she had glued it on with Elmer’s! Boy was it stuck. I think it will look okay when we paint.

I finished reducing eight file drawers down to four. There’s no reason a retired guy needs to have two file cabinets. At least I don’t. Anyone want to buy a file cabinet?

As I’ve said before, the RV has been stored at my sister’s between Lebanon trips. This time we went up Friday evening so Roy and I could get an early start on repacking the wheel bearings. He was my mentor; now I’m supposed to know what to do the next time. After lunch we headed for Lebanon. Again, we are set up in the church parking lot. Our goal is to visit as many people as possible while we are here. So far, most of our visits have been over meals. We are eating way too much!!!!

I preach this Sunday so the preparation is also taking some of my time. It is good. The people here are really great. In fact they had a potluck for us Sunday and gave us a nice money gift as appreciation for being here. It’s humbling.

Rain, Rain Go Away

Yes, it does rain in Oregon. And this spring it has rained too much. Even die-hard webfoots are crying, “enough already!” In February or March the prognosticators were saying the snow pack and rain fall were well below normal and it would be a dry summer. Now they are saying the opposite. I know I’ve had enough and it is dryer in Grants Pass than up in the valley.

I’m thankful for a more laid-back week. On Monday I went down to Boatnik. That’s an annual Memorial Weekend celebration in Riverside Park. Joyce stayed home because she was recovering from a cold. I watched the hydroplane races on the river, and the enjoyed the Memorial Day festivities. The food was good, too.

One of my projects was entering all my sermon file information into the computer. It was in an old program that was not compatible with all the new stuff so I couldn’t update it with recent sermons info. I’ve not updated it in about 6 or 7 years. This is not the sermons themselves; it is a file listing the sermon title, date preached, Bible text, topic, and number. The number is simply an arbitrary number I’ve assigned it and the actual sermon is filed by that number. So, I finally decided the old program was history and reentered everything in Excel – all 920 of them. I finished it Saturday. Yea! Now I have to enter the “new” sermons that have not been cataloged. There is probably a 100-150 of them, more or less. I’ll do that this coming week.

Today we went to church at Jerome Prairie. This afternoon we had another Allen Creek Gang potluck. This time at the home of Richard and Janis on the bank of the Applegate River. Beautiful lawn. Tables and chairs all set up. Nice and warm but not hot. Now, back to that discussion about Oregon rain. It was predicted and looked like it would. We were prepared to make a run for the carport if necessary. But guess what? It didn’t. We had a great time – not as many as last time, but still good. Some of the gang…

 Joe, Koey (behind the flower), Ed, Linda, Ken

Richard at the dessert table

  Sandy, Janis, Harriet, Flora

George, Loretta, Martha

This week will bring more changes. By next Sunday we’ll be in Lebanon. More about that later. Have a good week.

Our Trip Home

Hearst Castle

Our last few days in LA were great. Friday evening Joyce and I went on a date while the kids were at Awanas. We went to Islands for dinner and then a movie -- Robin Hood. Saturday Korak fixed a really nice breakfast for us. Then I took Josiah for a haircut. His hair was getting pretty long and his mom wanted it cut before summer. However, he would only go the barber if grandpa took him. So off we went and he got it cut fairly short. When we got home I realized we didn't get any pictures after the haircut. Well, take my word for it, it looks nice.

Sunday was church -- twice. As it turned out the two services were entirely different so it was fun staying for both. The worship leader shared during the first service and Pastor Kevin preached in the second. In the afternoon Joyce and I stayed home while the family went to a cousin's birthday party. Monday, Kevin and I went to lunch. It is always fun to visit with him. He is an amazing Pastor. Evening dinner was extra nice and we had a couple friends come over to share our "last evening." Then we packed the car. Packed is a pretty good word for it because we brought back a bike for Lilly and a scooter for Josiah (he already has a bike here) so they have things to play with when they are here this summer. We also brought back lots of lemons from their tree to share plus baby clothes for a friend. Oh... also a tent for camping this summer.

We left Tuesday early heading for Hearst Castle on highway one in northern California. Pictures follow somewhere but I'm having trouble with how Blogspot posts pictures (as you could tell from the last blog). They have four tours but we only took the basic one which is recommended for people who have never been there before. It is an amazing place. It kind of proves that if you have enough money you can build anything. It is on the top of a hill with a jillion steps, lots of marble statues, tile everywhere and mostly made of concrete -- with a lot of wood also.

One is a marble statue and one isn't.

If you were a visitor of William Randolf Hearst this might be the bed you would have slept in. A lot of movie stars did.

This is where you would eat along with all the other guests. Mr. Hearst sat in the middle with the newest guests closest to him. I guess when you got to the end of the table you knew it was time to go home.

And finally, the indoor pool where you could take a dip before lunch. The water was heated in Mr. Hearst's day.

We stayed in a motel Tuesday night and made it back to Grants Pass late Wednesday afternoon. Then we left early Thursday morning for the Portland area to attend my Aunt Vera's memorial service. She was the last of my mom's brothers/sisters and died at the age of 99. While we were "up north" we also made contact with Joyce's niece. She was down visiting colleges with her daughter Katlyn. These are the people we stayed with while we were in Wrangell, Alaska. Our visit was short, but good.

I got my garden replanted Saturday. Replanted because some seeds didn't sprout and my tomato plants froze while we were in Lebanon. I think being an absentee farmer doesn't work very well. Joyce has been fighting a cold so this morning I stayed home to be with her. Doesn't that sound altruistic? I'm such a good husband!!! Actually I did something this morning that I've wanted to do for 40 years -- skip church and watch the Indianapolis 500 Race. I don't even feel guilty.

Our plans are to be home -- our GP home -- for a couple weeks before we go back to Lebanon and various other experiences. Trust you have had a great Memorial Day weekend. Blessings.

Busy Having Fun

Greetings from LA. It’s time to sit down and blog a little. I am so behind in computer work. I think it has been non-stop go and almost non-stop projects since we got here – with one little interlude I’ll explain later. We got back to Grants Pass Sunday late afternoon on the 9th, loaded the car, and left early Monday morning. I didn’t want to travel in the rain because I had the old air conditioner in the trunk but the lid wouldn’t close. To protect the trunk from rain we put down a piece of plastic and some old towels and blankets, then put more plastic behind the air conditioner and taped it to the side of the car with blue painter’s tape. Of course the trunk lid was pulled down as far as it would go and held with bungees. To make a long story short (and this could be long), it rained almost the entire way down. It rained while we grabbed a quick nap in a rest area, it rained while we ate lunch, it POURED (like in torrential) as we drove thru Sacramento, and it just continued to rain. If there was a big black cloud on the horizon, it wasn’t off to the west or east, it was straight ahead right over the freeway. As we approached the Grapevine it begin to slacken and finally quite for the last 2 or 3 hours of the drive. But – believe it or not – very little water in the trunk and the carpeting wasn’t even damp!

Interruptions! I’m having too much for this blogging stuff. I started this sitting in Starbucks enjoying a Decaf Grande Latte with a shot of cherry. That was after I read through 37 emails. But then noon time came and I promised Joyce we would go to lunch so off went the computer and off we went to an In N Out Burger for bit of LA culture. The one we went to is right by the landing path at the airport so big planes come screaming in every few minutes just high enough that you can’t touch them – but almost. It’s an experience. There were about 200 people either eating in the place or waiting in the drive thru line. By the way, today is nice sunny day. We have had some of those but have also had rain and cold. I did get to wear my shorts for a couple days.

As I implied, we have been rather busy. We cleaned the end of the back room – this is our bedroom but is also used for storage, etc. We put up the shelves we brought from home – the ones Joyce had in her craft room. We cleaned the patio which is next to the back room. All this made a van full to take to Goodwill. Plus a bunch for garbage. I bought Josiah a small tackle box to use as a tool box. Of course, this had to be filled with tools. Then he and I commenced to build a go-kart. Gravity driven, that is. That took most of Saturday. Much of the hammering was too hard for him but he wanted to build something. Actually he wanted to build a Viking ship! The only one I could find was already built and cost $300. So opted for a go-kart. He has more hills around here than water, anyway.

The pictures here are during his initial run. It needs better seat and some paint. I hope to get to those before we leave – if I don’t run out of time.

Of course there had to be time mixed in here for eating out, shopping, and running to Home Depot. Lots of Home Depot runs! That was last week. Oh yes, and time to be sick. Yeah, I picked up a bug and it hit Sunday afternoon. For awhile I was going at both ends. Not a pretty sight around here. We went to church Sunday and I felt okay – maybe not tip-top, but okay. We went to Chuck E Cheese for lunch (I’m of the opinion that their pizza would make anyone sick) and I went home early. Some of Korak’s family came over in the evening to have a party. I was in the back room having my own party! But Monday I was okay – rather dragged out though. That’s my one little interlude to the nonstop going. Actually, I was kind of nonstop there for… oh, never mind. You don’t want to know.

This week we shopped for a new bed for Lilly. I don’t mean we bought it, we just helped Jana shop. But then there was the putting together, the rearranging of the bedroom, the reconfiguration of the closet, putting the boat together. Oh yeah, the boat.

Joyce brought Lilly a box full of Barbies to play with. Actually, Jana's old Barbies, so she didn't get left out of all this.

We brought Josiah a model speed boat to glue together. Well, we found out it was a little beyond his skills, plus we left the good glue at home so had to settle for super glue. Actually he did a lot of the work. I helped guide the glue and did the really little stuff. It is now done but needs paint. That will get done – if I don’t run out of time (I said that once already, didn’t I?). Or his dad can help him with it.

Yes, I do have wifi access here. That makes it easier than going to McDonalds. Just no time to do it. Barely enough time to keep up with emails. But we’re having fun!!!

Josiah got a bike! Josiah got a bike!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
Josiah's cousin, Nikea, was born 5 days before he was so they celebrated together Sunday evening.
 
 
 
   
And we'll close with a couple views of the church Jana and Korak and kids attend. It is Marina Christian Fellowship (Free Methodist) in Culver City. It sits at a "Y" in the road. Each Sunday they set out coffee and donuts plus relevant literature. It makes a nice place to visit.