The Vintage

We hardly dare to mention this in case of scaring it off, it's so new.... but this is our new body & paint shop, Vintage Paint, Body & Collision.

It's New. The stuff is all leftovers from "before", the stuff that was worth something to us but not someone else... enough "this and that" to piece together a New Shop.

This big paint booth is the biggest find next to the building. A godly friend had an extra dismantled in pieces that he needed to get out of a building he leases... something we were ecstatic to help out with.

The building at 150 NE Kelly is another wonderful matter. It's been vacant so long the City of Gresham had to OK a bodyshop moving back into the bodyshop!! And the building is so perfect for us because it was the perfect shell just waiting for us to move our stuff in, no changes required! Or at least, no big ones.... we ought to have had to run electricity and gas and air lines everywhere, not to mention punch holes through the roof for venting, intake and exhaust, etc, etc, etc.... so relatively speaking, all of that big stuff was already in place.

But that's the technical jargon, right? Basically.... it's perfection in a box that was just waiting for us to press through all the obstacles and God in His mercy gave us the strength (we didn't know we had left) to do just that.

We're a family in business together!!

Oaks Park Fun in the Rain

This spring has been the wettest EVER. E.V.E.R. Spring Break was no different and since we're web-footed, we barely remembered to bring coats along for the cold fun. A swipe of the seat cleared it of lingering rain drops, and off spun our Treasures having So Much Fun. As a Mom, these pictures catch my breath. I hold our Treasures too closely to the heart to trust fancy fun machines with their life... it was like letting them grow up a bit to pick the rides they wanted on. In other words, this entire afternoon was me un-clenching fingers one by one over and over as I cheered them on and took pictures. I don't expect that to make sense to any other than a Mom of treasured Treasures. The kids, on the other hand, had a glorious cold blast. I have fewer pictures of the older boys for good reason... they applied the "Mom, I'll be over here" growinger up thing. The littler ones still thought it was "cool" to wave to Mom. (phew!)