Family Vacation

Every Christmas break, our family goes on vacation together (including our Grammy) to the Oregon Coast. We rented a beach house for three days and four nights. We saw many sights, spent time walking on the beach, and playing nightly games.


Jason was especially excited about this trip because he got to golf on the Bandon Dunes golf course, which is ranked ninth in the nation. Here is a picture of the club house. Jason and I went out a day early before he and Ryan's tee time just to view the course. Last Christmas Jason bought a book about the construction of the resort and he knew all the facts. As we were driving in 2 miles from highway 101, Jason said his heart kept pounding faster and faster the closer we got. I thought maybe he was getting sick or something and so I asked why his heart was beating so fast. He replied, like a little boy on Christmas morning, "...beacuse I am so excited!)


Here is a view of one of the ponds on the course. Many of the back nine runs parallel to the ocean.

Jason is climbing up to one of the view points at Bandon Dunes. It was a WINDY and RAINY afernoon!



Jason and Ryan are enjoying clam chowder in a bread bowl and a prawns basket. They were starving and weren't too thrilled to have a picture taken while they were eating!

Here, my dad and I were warming up with a nice bowl of clam chowder.
This seagull is contemplating where his next meal will come from.

This is a puzzle that Jason and our Grandma worked on during our vacation. I am told it was a very tricky puzzle.

Tis' The Season

Our staff had a progressive dinner in place of a Christmas party. We had appetizers at Bonna's house, the main course (soups) at our house, and desserts and games at Brenda's house. It was SO much fun!!









It took Jason and I a while to get our house decorated and to make room for everyone. We borrowed tables from church, chairs from school, and moved most of the furniture out of the living room to make room for about 32 people....that was interesting!








We had SEVEN crock pots of soups in our kitchen, with plenty of room to spare. As poeople walked in the door their taste buds were tickled by the wonderful aromas of simmering soups.










Oh, the piles of shoes left behind those who entered!












Deciding which soups to taste proved tricky with so many selections.












Kristi, our administrator, is telling Kristina the potato soup that Mary made was one of her favorites.











Kristi and Mary take a break from "souping" for a quick smile!












Loraina and Tina are happily waiting in the soup line.












Yummo! The soups made tummies very happy!!












Some of the soups were literally cooking all day and were very warm. Here, Tina, Loraina, and Tana are waiting for theirs to cool down a bit.











Soups and conversation warmed hungry tummies!













After dinner, we meandered over to Brenda's house to have dessert and play games. There were five games to play in half hour rotations. We played Scrabble, Uno, Skip-bo, Yahtzee, and Word Yahtzee. Each person was given a scoring card and at the end of each game they wrote down their score on the card.

At the end of all the games each person totalled their scores and the winner with the highest score won the grand prize. The grand prize consisted of 4 passes to the movies, movie candy and several dvd's. There were also several other prizes for the next highest scores.The games were a lot of fun and each time we played with a different group of people, which kept things exciting and fast paced.






Jason and Brenda were the top Scrabble players. Jason had the highest total score at the end of the evening, winning the grand prize. Jason, Ryan, and I went to see that latest National Treasure movie as part of our Christmas Eve tradition.

Christmas Beginings

So Jason and I have never had a real Christmas tree since we have been married. When we lived in Sutherlin, Jason traveled north to U of O and I traveled south to school. During Thanksgiving and Christmas we were rarely home and celebrated at my parent's house. So this year we are actually decorating for Christmas, starting with our tree. Here are my dad and Jason pulling the tree out of the truck. However, this was a very tall large tree.

Jason ended up having to hack off three feet on three separate occasions. Next time we are going to get a much smaller tree!

The diameter of the tree was so large we were afraid it wouldn't fit into the stand. So with several hard pushes Jason got the stand on. Little did he know he would end up doing this three more times in order for the tree to fit into the house!

Jason was putting the final touches on the tree as my mom was cutting the hap-hazard branches from the bottom. I happened to snap this picture just as my mom let out a bit "uh-oh!" Yeah, she was being so effective and efficient with snapping branches that she accidentally cut one of the strands of lights completely! Luckily my dad and Jason were able to fix it. I was not looking forward to going into Roseburg for the sixth time that day for a new strand of lights!

Ahhh! Our first Christmas tree. I wanted to have a very elegant tree. The bulbs are gold, a frosted gold, burgundy, and a frosted burgundy. The shapes are a variety of ovals, bells, and circular bulbs. The lights are white and then I found sheer gold wired ribbon and that had burgundy scroll work on it. I took varying lengths of the ribbon and attached them to the top to give a cascading look. I was VERY pleased with the outcome!

Fall Housewarming

Jason and I have felt so blessed to have our home....it is truly the delight of our heart. We had our housewarming during the afternoon of November 17th. Ir was so wonderful to have our friends and family be able to enjoy our house. Many stopped in for the warm apple cider, snicker doodle cookies, and a brief visit. We had about seventy people throughout the course of the afternoon and it was a wonderful time. Here Alee, a former student of mine and current student of Jason's, and her mom gave us an absolutely beautiful wind chime.

Mary Naylor gave Jason and I a VERY fancy roasting pan, just in time for Thanksgiving, which we had at our house!

Here are all of the shoes of those inside! Towards the end of the afternoon, this pile grew to about four times the size as seen here.

Here are Kristina and I in the kitchen. Kristina is a first year teacher and Jason and I get a kick out of her....she is so much fun! We can't help but laugh out loud with some of the things she says and does :0)

Jason and Toby are talking golf, while later Riley, a student of Jason's, pause from the teasing for a quick picture.

Randy was plesantly surprised to take the leftover snickerdoodles home, as Tana joins the conversation. Gail said by the end of the weekend there were only four cookies the boys hadn't eaten. Compliments to the chef (me..hee-hee).

Susan, my teaching partner and closest friend (seen in the left with the gray coat) gave Jason and I a gift along with the red vase and candy canes. I LOVED the vase, and was so surprised! Jason LOVED the candy canes, as he seems to be unable to get enought of the pepperminty goodness around the holidays.

New Editions to Our Family

So, here is the story...After we moved into our beautiful new home, we had some unexpected visitors. The four legged variety...Yes, that's right a mouse.

Heather was getting something underneath the cabinet in the kitchen and she let out a blood curdling scream. As you can imagine, I was fairly alarmed and rushed in from the living room to see what was the matter. She exclaimed that she had seen a mouse and was pointing at the cupboard door. I thought that she was seeing things, after all it is a brand new house, so I opened up the door and found the end of a plastic bag. It looked suspiciously like a mouse's tail. Slightly amused, I called Heather back into the kitchen from the top of the couch where she had perched, still screaming. When she returned to the kitchen, we opened the door again. This time a mouse leaped from the shopping bag and scampered under the range.

After getting advice and hearing stories from virtually everyone we talked to that had had a mouse story, I ended up killing 3 mice, two at once in a glue trap, and one in a snap-trap.

In order to prevent future infestations, Heather and I determined we needed a cat. So began our search for a new family member. We went to Saving Grace Animal Shelter, outside of Roseburg and found an energetic, vibrant little kitten we named Gracie.

Of course we immediately fell in love with this little one, even though we both had not claimed any affinity for cats. We found ourselves buying cat toys, wondering which food to buy her and feeling incredibly lonesome when we were not around her. She was so full of life, fun and affectionate.

We only had her for a couple of days when we noticed that Gracie's energy level had dramatically decreased and she needed to be around us much more than we were used to. We thought that she might need a friend to keep her company during the day. So, we returned to the animal shelter and adopted a beautiful Siamese mix kitten that we eventually dubbed "Macie".

After we brought Macie home, Gracie stopped drinking and eating, preferring to be held. Her gait began to be very unsteady. She cuddled with me for hours in my chair, content to be near me, but mewing pitifully as though she was in pain. Heather and I immediately called the vet and brought Gracie in the same night. He told us that he was going to keep her overnight because her internal electrical system wasn't working properly. Concerned, we agreed

The next day was Monday and I had to travel to Medford for a reading conference; Heather taught in her classroom. Even though we were both away, our thoughts were still on our beloved Gracie kitty. Around noon, Heather received a phone call from the veterinarian. Gracie had not made it. She died at the vet's office from a form of kitten leukemia. She was with us eight days.

We still had one adorable kitten at home. Despite the heartbreak of Gracie's death, Macie found a special place of affection in our hearts. She was healthy, playful and extremely loving. However, our plan of having two kittens around reached it's fullfillment with another addition, our other kitten Trudy. Now, they are able to keep each other company during the day and hopefully they will be able to keep the mouse population down to a minimum at our house!

Our New House

Here are some pictures of our brand new house! It is a 1735 ft2, 3 bedroom, 2 bath house with vaulted ceilings, 2 car garage. We love it!!!

Heather finally gets to have her piano for the first time in our marriage.

Our living room (grand room technically) is huge! It's a little "furnishing bare" at this point, but we are working on it.

This our dining room, which is right off the kitchen.

Ahhhh, a furnished kitchen. One of the few rooms we could decorate completely.

Our kitchen, with our brand new fridge...We are soooo excited.

This is how our guest bathroom looked before we moved in.

The guest bath takes on a definite Parisian flair.

The guest bedroom prior to decorating.

The guest room is now ready for company.

The Master Bedroom-Again, very furnishing bare at this point...

Master Bedroom w/ view of slider

Master Bedroom

The Master Bath complete with Jack and Jill sinks. Now we don't need to trip over each other in the morning.