Yikes!

Jeremy returned safely from Montana with his grandpa's truck, but the trip put him in the hospital with a leg infection!

The Dentist

Trinity started some dentist visits in the month of May. She is always in Princess style, of course. OF COURSE!

Grandpa's Truck.... from MONTANA!

Jeremy received a call in the fall with the announcement that his grandparents were going to give him his grandpa's truck. We waited 'til spring when he could drive it back over the mountain passes... mid-May he flew to Billings.

Room swap

For the kids' Spring Break this year, we exchanged bedrooms.

Part I involved moving dad & mom to the living room and the boys helped enthusiastically.

Part II was getting the boys settled in our old room - new mattresses, a new bed for Shad, Camten moved to a bunk & his old toddler bed sold (the money saved to go towards a new Xbox game).

Part III was getting the boys' old room ready for dad & mom, which was a progress that involved paint and new carpet and more time than originally planned for,

but Part IV saw everyone settled in their new locations HAPPY!! :-)

The switch was a great idea and helped give everyone elbow room to grow and snuggle comfy in our Sunnyside home.

Grandpa's Truck

My favorite project to date.... painting Grandpa's truck. Uncle Bert drove it out from Scappoose so we could take part in restoring it. We took a lot of pictures and carefully duplicated decals & colors to turn out a truck that was recognizably Gib's Luv.

Student of the Month

Yay Shad!!!

Everywhere he goes... teachers and grown ups are happy working with Shad. He rec'd this award for outstanding progress. He continually overcomes his drive for perfection.... to practice and try and work hard while having a friendly attitude. WE LOVE YOU, SHAD!!

New addition

When the kittens turned 5 weeks old, we started adopting them out. There is a window of cuteness about 2 or 3 weeks long. We were so sad to see each one go since they were so adorably cute. We even found a good home for Orange, the momma kitty. An older couple took her out to their country home outside of McMinville to catch mice and freely come and go in their house.

But one kitten we accidently grew attached to ourselves. I know it's so important not to let that happen, but FLUFFY was so very fluffy and big and sweet. He would let Trinity carry him around like a baby, wrapping him in blankies. He was so quiet and calm, content to sleep on Jeremy. How could we not keep him?!

AS I write he's passed the "totally cute" stage and progressed to "slightly obnoxious" stage. He sleeps during the day and romps while we try to sleep even attacking our toes under the covers. He often wakes up the kids biting their fingers in play - sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the middle of the night... even Camten on the top bunk. He attacks Penny (especially her one back leg) with unending viciousness of play and she cooperates by complaining loudly in an unending yowl of no real pain or anger that is driving us all crazy.

But he's our Fluff, now, and part of the family.

Aidan's concert

One of the great.... responsibilities of parents of kids is attending concerts. Aidan did a great job! And we all cheered him on!! LOVE YOU AIDAN!

12 Year Anniversary!

Celebrating LOVE! :-) We dropped the kids off at Mom's and caught a movie, just the two of us, and ate at the Klondike Restaurant near the river in St Helens.

We took lots of pictures of each other - sitting on the same side of the booth as brought up in the movie, Date Night. It was probably the most relaxed, fun anniversary we've ever had. We've survived a lot - our first year in the Maaco, the years before the Maaco, the years of wondering what would be better than contracting, four new little treasures, and the first years of being married.

We are happy to always enjoy each other, looking forward to chatting every day and dropping in on each other w/ visits or texts or phone calls. We are happy to work together, happy with our new business. We are happiest with our kids and hanging out altogether. We are happy to have worked out so many minor irritations, happy to have decided to love each other despite our obvious, continuous faults (which will persist whether we want 'em to or not.)

I like the pictures we took of ourselves at the restaurant on our separate cell phones. After 12 years, we are happy to have fun together and laugh at ourselves. That's a lot!

Daily fun

We'll remember Aidan's 3rd grade as the year of massive amounts of homework. Aidan often worked an hour every evening all year - more homework than Shad in 5th or any kid to date at our house. Hopefully we'll show off his super learned skills for years to come! :-)
Camten and Trinity have spent a lot of time with Mom running errands, some more fun than others. Spring brings the peepers to Burns Feed store!
Shad was hoping to start an electrical storm in the kitchen. What he got was an experiment showing how warm (red) "air" rises and cool (blue) "air" sinks - anti-climactic.
A picture for my honey.... his sweatpea in his latest creation - HI HONEY!

Winners!

Chip Foose was there this year and Jeremy ran into him Friday morning... for a personal signing of his glove box & a check-out of his truck. NICE!


Portland Roadster Show 2010. It was an honor to be chosen to participate in the show. We had inside help getting our application to the top of the pile to be considered. We had to prove Jeremy's truck would be ready in time to a representative who enjoyed hanging out with us on a couple occasions. We heard over 400 vehicles were turned away... which might explain partly why the Roadster Show is moving from the Convention Center to the Expo Center for next year. So... it was a huge honor to make it in the show, but we trophied, too!! We rec'd 2nd place in the truck category we were in - our beautiful factory-original '71 long box Chevy truck won 2nd place at Portland's biggest indoor custom rod show!!! :-) The whole shop celebrated!!!