Birthday Boy...

Wow, Kellen hit 19 this past weekend, his last year of being a teen! He had to work on Saturday night, so we did a brief celebration that day, then planned to do a more formal one the following evening.

What he didn't know is that we had invited several of his friends to join us for dinner, then back to our house for cake. We met up at a local Japanese restaurant, where we had our own Tatami room and good food. Kellen was a bit rusty on his chopstick skills, but he was good enough to gobble up his sushi!

We met up back at our house for cake and a competitive game of Monopoly. This is the beginning of birthday season for us: four in about the next seven weeks! Gearing up for Josh's next week:)

Dear Tooth Fairy....

What to do when you literally lose your tooth before you put it under your pillow? Write the tooth fairy a letter, of course....

Dear Tooth Fairy,
I'm sorry I lost my tooth. I hope you bring me money anyway.
Love me,
Jaelyn

Meant to be...

Yeah, it's Veggie Tales, but it's much deeper than that. Got to see it for yourself...

Ta Da....

Below are some pictures from our reflooring and painting project. But first of all let me take you back to what our kitchen looked like back in 2000....



So here's what our kitchen looked like after our original remodel...

All we really changed was the flooring, but it really makes the room show up more. The flooring is a little more gray than this photo shows though.


Here you see a little of the family room before....

During the tear apart....

After....

Dining room before (plus extra furniture from the family room)....

During....

After (sorry, this picture is a little yellow, but you get the idea)....

Mike tearing up the entryway....

Look at the ugly linoleum he found under the wood flooring he pulled up....early 80's for sure!

After.....

This was a full family affair.....Mike (master planner), Kellen (clean up crew), Josh (lead asst.), Toni (professional painter), Jaelyn (nail remover), and Kaia (second nail remover) worked, plus my parents came down to help with the final touches. Dad helped Mike with the transition pieces and other details, while Mom helped entertain the girls and wash/dust the many neglected knick knacks. Mom and I then rearranged everything for the walls, directing Dad where to hang them. We really appreciate the group effort, and it looks great, but I especially need to thank Mike for his many, many hours of planning, work, and sweat, despite many moments of frustration. Good thing he's a math teacher, as he had to apply many formulas to figure out how to match up all the flooring. Love you babe!

Closure...

Our first glimpses of Yung Yung were peek-a-boo sightings from around the corner...


As we followed him into the room, we met his very sick mother...


My heart has been heavy again as this week I learned of the passing of Yung Yung's mother. I posted just a bit about them while we were in China; a mother who brought her six year old son to the orphanage because she was dying and had no where else to turn. Sweet Yung Yung is now an orphan himself, as his mom passed away about a month ago. Please pray he is adjusting to life with the other children at the orphanage, and given an opportunity to mourn his loss. Please also pray the sweet photos he clung to of his mother (in healthier days) are something that are kept safe for him. And most importantly, pray this boy can be part of a family again!

I've Been Flushed!!!

Yesterday we came out of our house to find this in the yard...

The senior class delivers it to different yards as a fundraiser. For $10 you can send it on its merry way to some other unsuspecting person's yard, and for an additional $10 you can buy insurance so that it never finds its way back to yours! I decided to have a little photo session while I could:) I wonder where it is on its way to now????

Work Break....

Forgive me for not posting much lately, but we are in the midst of a major job. We have been removing the carpet in the house, painting, and putting in new flooring. It has been nearly two weeks of work, but we are nearing the end. I will post pictures when the job is done, but for now, here's a sneak peak of what we've been up to:


The only reprieve from work these days has been taking the girls to swimming lessons, which they love! It's been about two years since they last took lessons, and they have overcome a lot of fears, especially Jaelyn. She is even putting her head underwater in one of the photos below. The photos aren't the best inside the pool, but you can see that they are
having a good time.

Summer Boredom....

This is evidence of what happens when a 15 year old has too much time on their hands in the summer:

God's Beauty....

I thought I would post some nature shots from our vacation, as we saw so many beautiful places while we were there.

We spent one morning viewing the tide pools at Seal Rock. We saw sea anemones, starfish, mussels, etc., and a stinky dead sea lion. It was early and cold, due to the mist in the air, so Jaelyn didn't have so much fun. I ended up taking her back to the car while the others explored. On the other hand, Kaia couldn't get enough of the water and stepped in every puddle she could!


The picture doesn't do the Devil's Punchbowl justice. It looks like a tiny pool of water in the photo, but trust me, it's not!

This is my favorite area on the coast, Devil's Churn. I could stay here for hours watching the waves crash into the rocks. You just have to be careful, or you'll get soaked, or worse yet, fall in!


This is taken from Cape Perpetua. The first photo is looking over the top of Devil's Churn. This is the highest viewpoint on the Oregon Coast, and if the day hadn't have been so cloudy, we could have seen much further.


I forgot to include a funny story from the trip, although it wasn't so funny at the time. Wednesday morning my nephew Morgan asked the adults "Is that a tsunami warning I hear?" We thought he was joking around until we looked out at the beach and saw an older couple quickly walking away from the water towards our house. We turned on the radio, but could not find anything about it, so we then got on the Internet. We did find out that there had been a 5.2 earthquake off the coast of Oregon about an hour previously (gulp), but could find nothing on a warning. By that time the couple had made their way to our house, and they were asking about the warning. They said that they had heard talking over loudspeakers, but couldn't understand what was being said (another gulp). At this point we decided to call the local fire department....
their response was (chuckling as they said this), "Wednesdays are tsunami warning testing days, and your rental should have a flier posted regarding this." Gee, I think the rental agency missed out on that one. In fact, there is probably a hidden camera posted somewhere and they get a kick out of watching their tenants panic! Just happens that this test time there really was an earthquake off the coast, but not one that caused any tidal surges. We all got a laugh out of it later:)

Girls vs. Sand Dune...

Here's the video I tried to post earlier. Notice the smiles they had on their faces the whole way down, even after "the shove!" Jaelyn had to have eaten some sand....