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!)

Rain, rain, fall today

Every day is a perfect day for Pink. :-) Rain is perfect for a pink umbrella, too. Trinity had just such an umbrella for just such a day and nothing is as grown up as waiting for the school bus in front of the house. Perfect!

Parthenon

Shad's put in extra effort at school... and he's always got his own idea of how he wants things done. Nothing would do but an entire mini replica of the Parthenon in clay for Social Studies. He also had to write a "letter of request" to a museum to submit it as an artifact as his team journey's around the Mediterranean. Pretty fun. We added the room where explosives were stored that blew up to leave the ruins behind that are there today. Maybe we should visit Greece! :-)

Nana & Papa Jim

Nana had a Godz Girlz meeting and Papa Jim needed to fix the septic at the rental, so they got a room at a nearby hotel and invited us over to play. First we hung out with Trish and showed them both the new shop in Gresham and ate out at the Olive Garden. It was almost too much fun packed into one day, but somehow we managed.

Shad & the Baritone

:-) Good job, Shad!! I see you in there!

Mr. Evans was injured - his wrist was wrapped up so he won't move it mid-surgery. ouch! He was funny and laid back and maybe even a little unorganized, but he couldn't have been feeling too good.

SNOW!!

No way! It's March and it's snowing!!!! What a crazy year, seriously. We didn't waste a minute, never knowing how many we'd get. Everyone suited up and found some snow. We played 'til fingers were frizzed and drank all the hot chocolate!!

PE Night

Deep Creek has a great PE program with a very creative teacher who is widely known as Mr Lustig or Mr Awesome! (I made that up). We were somehow persuaded to join 300 kids and families running around the school gym at night. I don't remember when we've laughed so hard. Slept great that night, too. (Endless benefits!)

Vintage Paint!!!!

Wow! this is such a blessing.... we're putting together a NEW SHOP in Gresham. There's so much to do to get ready, it's almost overwhelming, but we're bringing stuff over and finding homes for everything needed to work on cars again... building a paint booth from scratch. Hey, vacation was nice, but we're ready to get back to work!! Woohoo!!

A spot of Snow

This has not been a winter for snowmen and sledding.... not without visiting a mountain. Yes, the rest of the entire United States including Florida has gotten more snow than Portland, OR. It's nearly pathetic if the storms weren't so bad in much of the country it's just Wrong to Complain. I can't withhold the smallest of slightly sarcastic blog posts, tho, celebrating a Spot of Snow on February 16th before school. Shad and Trinity made this Snow Mouse with be-be eyes. It melted immediately.

McTeacher Night

It is our pleasure to support Deep Creek school for McTeacher night. We have purchased McD's for dinner when the teachers are working every year, visiting with friends and saying "hi" to every teacher at least twice.

Valentine's

Valentine's is so fun... starting with cards in the mail! Grandpa and Grandma in Billing's Montana always remember to send a card to each of the kids and they love receiving mail! G'ma cuts out lots of stickers for each of them, too. We used some of them to decorate all the Valentine's for school class parties - and decorating LIFE, etc. :-) Nana sent a big package full of candy, which arrived just in time to slow down the snackers enough to finish their class Valentine's. Aidan, Camten and Trinity each had 20 - 30 Valentine's to sign their names to and attach some sweet extra. Trinity chose lollipops, her favorite. Aidan was the fastest, being the most experienced, and he flew thru the Butterfinger heart chocolates, his favorite. Camten is an interesting combination.... he drags his feet 'til the last minute on projects that require such tediousness as writing, but then he can focus better than any Armstrong and finishes first. It happens all the time. I announce "Bedtime!" and the little guy's in his jammies with teeth brushed before anyone else has put down their light saber. "Time to come in!" has his head bobbing down the hillside leaving us with the echo of his challenge to be the fastest. So it was that I was left at the table with his Valentine's counting to make sure he hadn't forgotten anyone while he zipped off to play - and he was right on the number, 22. Aidan and Trinity lingered half an hour longer. I should have gotten a picture of the mess.... it was monumental. Valentine's and candy everywhere and Sugared Kids bouncing off the walls. The class parties were fun - Dad and Mom dropped in all three parties before taking the partiers home. And where was Shad in all this? He's in 6th grade, now. They're too big for handing out Valentine's like that. There was some grown-up distributions of bags of candy, but no "Be Mine"s. It's too close to gettin' serious at 11 years of age!! (Yikes!!) The siblings were generous with their big brother. He got all the sour sweets.

Go Aidan!!

Aidan's music concert at Deep Creek. He dressed up in black - he's on the highest riser, farthest left on stage. He did some dancing, too. Camten and Trinity insisted on coming along to see, although concert behavior is tricky to maintain a whole hour. :-) Trinity found a friend from class. Camten did, too. There was a "gang" of boys from his class, but they looked like kindred spirits and due to the Good Behavior rule, he sat with Mom. :-)