Oregon

We just returned yesterday from our trip to Oregon for my grandpa's memorial service and visiting my dad's side of the family. This'll be a long post, just warning you...

 Going for a walk!

 Soooo much moss everywhere!

 The neighbors were having their very tall tree cut down. 

I'm glad that's not my job.

 And since the sun was out, everyone pulled out the lawn chairs and enjoyed the show. Almost as good as fireworks! But not quite. :)

 Down by the creek

 We found a couple Ents

 Tree climbing

 Pizza eating

 Lots of visiting, lots of talking

Dad and his sisters...

They had lots of practice sitting like this on Sunday afternoons at their grandparents' house...

Christian came along (I'm so glad he did!) to meet the family, so he got roped into playing some soccer with the kids.

 Waiting for the service to start

 Jodi's good at keeping things serious...

Her son apparently takes after her... :)

Laura was missing Titus, so she was happy to hold Sammi.

 Grandpa was in the army, so he was honored with a military service.

 They unfold, then re-fold the flag...

...then present it to my dad with thanks from the president.

 Then they present him with the casings from the shots fired before playing Taps. 

It was very somber, very respect-inducing.

  Uncle Steve and Gabe read some Scripture and led us in some songs.

I guess a couple months ago, their (Grandpa's, A.Ginny and U.Steve's) Bible study was talking about what songs they wanted played/sung at their funerals. Normally very quiet, Grandpa piped up that he wanted Blessed Assurance sung at his funeral. So, we did! It was so sweet hearing the kids' voices singing loudly!

 Micah

 "Aunt Bunny" with Riley

 Kari kept me laughing the whole time we were there!

 Lela too. Ok, all the cousins just make me laugh. It was good to reconnect. :)

24 years ago, the last time we were all together, we took a picture of all of us cousins, lined up in height order (more or less)

 Here we are in the exact same order...things have changed!

 Here we are in age-order.

 For those of you reading this who are on this side of the family, I'll be putting our pictures on CD's and mailing them to Aunt Ginny and Aunt Shirley. It was so good to see everybody!

Progress

 Finished the new blankets!

 These 2 sillies are fighting coughs/colds....again.

Anne's front teeth are slowly growing in...crooked, of course. :) Good thing we like our orthodontist.

Seedlings have started! Hopefully excavating ground tomorrow for the high tunnel!

Thankful

As Grandpa faces his last hours here on earth, I'm thinking about how grateful I am. I grateful for the many birthday cards he sent throughout the years. I'm grateful for his example- he has always been so gentle and always smiling.  My kids call him "The Smiling Grandpa". I will always treasure that he spent time with all of my kids, though the twins were while I was still pregnant. :) Here are some of my favorite pictures...

 

 Happy days...

 Grandpa with Anne at Lela's wedding

He always welcomed us into his home whenever we were passing through!

Re-assessing

Pardon me, while I process a little here. Some people (like my husband) can see the facts, make an intelligent decision, and stick with it. Other people (like myself) have ideals and just have to try them to see if they can beat the odds. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I find that whenever Christian humors me (realizing that I just need to work through things- that's also my learning style, incidentally- "learning the hard way", I believe it's called), I eventually end up coming around and agreeing that Christian was right all along. This last year seems to have been a year of "trying to find a furry pet". Part of me sees it all as failure and wishes I could just delete all those pictures and pretend they never happened because it makes me feel bad that they didn't work out. But I think it's somehow important for my kids to see that things don't always work out the way we want. I think. But maybe they'll be scarred for life.

We started with Penny the bunny...

She was waaaaaaaaay stinkier than we thought- not at all how her former owner had described. We ended up giving her to our neighbors where she became an outdoor bunny and was eventually killed by their dog. :(

 Then there was Bailey...

She was a sweetie, but not a good outside dog- she was too lonely and got too excited when we were outside. Her jumping terrified the twins to the point where they refused to go in the backyard. Ever. She went back to the shelter and I only hope she found a new home.

Nellie and Belle (and eventually Lolly, Molly, and Bilbo) were next!

We sold the kids when they were old enough (as was always the plan) and then eventually sold Nellie as well, replacing her with Tribble- whom we hoped would make the whole endeavor so much better!

 

 Tribble had triplets, one still-born. Tribble is super easy to milk. But she doesn't make very much. After keeping goats for 9 months, logic has set in. They are expensive. They are a lot of work. I'm constantly feeling like I'm doing something wrong- hoof trimming, feeding, whatever. We are completely inflexible for traveling, dependent on one set of friends to watch our animals if we want to go anywhere. So, we've decided to sell the goats. Part of me will be incredibly relieved at getting rid of the extra responsibility. Part of me will really miss this...

BUT, we have decided to continue with chickens, since they are a LOT easier to maintain, and are quite amusing to watch. 

We'll be getting 7 new chicks this Spring to make a total of 15 laying hens.

We're hoping to have some extra eggs to be able to occasionally sell some; we've had several people asking already.

And we will be doing meat birds again! But differently this time. 

We'll get a breed that forages well (Red Rangers), and will be later in the season.

Christian's been begging (practically, though he would say just "strongly hinting") for me to get more involved in the gardening. And I'm finally on board! We're going to be putting up a ginormous high tunnel in the next week or two, which will greatly extend our growing season (our annual growing season is maybe 120 days?). I'm also plotting out some landscaping, hoping to add some fruiting bushes, and a tree here and there to offer the chickens a little more protection from the hawks to be able to roam outside their yard better. I'm excited! Excited for the new season, excited to be on the same heartbeat as my man!

Misc.

I'm working on custom size quilts for the twins since Christian's making them custom size beds.

 All for a little more floor space in the bedroom!

We had a "Fancy Night" where we all dressed up, ate a fancy dinner with (mostly) good manners and finished off with a little bit of dancing! We started off with Grace's Waltz by Fernando Ortego, had some What Do You Do With a Silly Sailor in the middle and finished of with the Sleeping Beauty Waltz, with some others in between. Fun times!

We've started allowing the chickens to free range in the backyard since the days are warming up, but nothing's growing in the garden that they can get to yet! They're definitely enjoying the freedom.

We're trying to sell silly Nick (again)...

Nora enjoys climbing and sliding!