How the Heck do You Spell Croquet?

1. My mom and dad invited D and I to play croquet yesterday afternoon after church. It was so fun. We actually set up the course in the church lawn. Not sure if we are suppose to do that or not, but we did anyway. Dave and Kaci joined us, and we had a blast. So much fun. But D wasn't able to come, so that was sad. His dumb blackberry started ringing right when we were starting to get ready to go. Have I ever mentioned that I hate that thing? Anyway, we played without him and still had fun. Dave won, then Dad won and then Kaci won. I sucked. :)

2. Church was awesome yesterday. It was one of those Sundays that I am so grateful to have such a great church. Of course everyone knows that the economy is down, call it whatever you want, a recession, a slump, a downturn. Anyway, the point being that when this happens, non-profits are hit hard because giving goes way down. Of course our church is no exception and we are feeling the effects of the economy. BUT, even when we are in a time of need, we are still reaching out to others. There is another smaller, local church down the street that was in the midst of a financial need. So we took a second offering at church yesterday to send to the other church. I LOVE THAT! It inspired me. Sometimes we get so focused on ourselves we forget to look outward and see other people's needs too. I love a generous heart and spirit. So I have a challenge for you this week!!! I don't have very much extra money these days either, but I am going to go to the grocery store a pick up a couple boxes and a couple of cans of foods to donate to the Tualatin Food Pantry. I probably won't spend more than $5-6, but it will have a huge impact for a hungry family in my community! I can't wait until I have kids so we can make it routine to pick something up for the food pantry while we grocery shop each week. So please, get out and do something like this during this week and then share what you did. You never know when you will inspire someone else to make a difference too!!!!

3. I just had a great day yesterday. Church was fantastic and then we went out to lunch with my very favorite friends, Dave and Kaci and their way too funny kids. And Cheesecake factory is always good, but a $7.50 meal for Sunday brunch is a great deal too.

4. Pizza at mom and dad's after croquet with Jon and Kelly. (D still attached to blackberry, or blueberry as grandma kept calling it at lunch on Friday). It was fun to hear about J and K's trip to laPine. They also went and floated in the raft at Devil's Lake.

5. Ended the day by buying a pretty cute new shirt for work at Target on clearance for $5.08!

6. D was on his black(crack)berry from 3:01 pm until 1:15 am. I already said that I hate that thing, right? ha.

Okay, well that is my list of rambling junk for today. Don't forget to participate in giving back this week!!!! Peace out.

I Love Vacation

WARNING: Pictures galore ahead!

So we're back from our vacation. I was super sad to be back at first. It is so nice to be somewhere relaxing, turn your phone off and just be alone for a while. But today I am feeling refreshed, rejuvenated and re-energized to be back at work. It is a busy time of year when all the teachers come back and everything is being finalized for the new school year. I am so thankful that I got a vacation when I did. I am sure that I will be feeling like I need another one by about mid-September.

Anyway, we had a great time! We were able to leave on Wednesday and didn't come home until Monday. It was fantastic. It was pretty stinkin' hot this weekend though, so our hiking trip got canceled. I think Devin just wanted to avoid cranky hot Tami!

We only ate out one time while we were gone and it was so nice! We ate so well while we were there. I even took some pictures of our breakfasts. We had apple cinnamon pancakes, Belgium waffles, French toast, fresh fruit and scrambled eggs for breakfast. For dinner we had steak and potatoes, spaghetti, salmon burgers, shrimp and garlic roasted potatoes, etc. Anyway, we ate like kings!

If you look closely, you can see DEV in the pancake, it is kind of backwards though.
Fun trick I learned in one of my nanny books. It usually turns out better than this though

I think my favorite part of the trip was floating in our newly purchased raft in Devil's Lake. That was so peaceful and relaxing. I read to Devin as he paddled us around.

Devin inflating our raft for our Devil's Lake adventure

Someone needs a tan as much as I do....lol

Look at that water!!! It was beautiful.

Funny Story: So we were paddling around the lake when I saw a cute mom and her little boy, probably about Megan's age playing by the edge of the water. Then I saw her husband. He was sitting on a nearby rock. Devin's back was toward the family, but I said to him,
"Devin I think that man is naked."
"no." says Devin
"Really, I think he is Devin!"
"I don't think so, look again."
Well as soon as he said that, I looked over that direction to get a better look, just in time to see the man stand up. "Oh my gosh! Yes, he is definitely naked alright!"

Nothing like a nice family day at the lake, until your dad decides to get naked in public!! It was like a car wreck you couldn't look away from, I just could not believe that he was in deed hanging out at the lake naked, literally. My poor eyes.


anyway, the next day we drove out to the Oregon Outback. We visited Fort Rock and ran into this tiny little museum and decided to stop in. It only cost us $4 for both of us to get in. It was a little community of original homes from the settlers of Fort Rock. It was soooo neat. There was also a school house and church. I loved it.

In the Post Office and Land Sales Office.
May I help you?

Me outside one of the settler's homes. They give you a piece of paper to go on the tour that tells you a little bit about each famiy and the time frame they lived in Fort Rock. I had to laugh because all of the families were there in the early 1900's and then we got to the blacksmith shop and it said, "built in the summer of 2006." Lol. Apparently they had a bunch of original black smith tools and such so they built the shop to display them in.

Here is a picture of Fort Rock. There are Indian artifacts all over up there.
They say at one time, after the last ice age that this used to be a huge lake and at the base of Fort Rock the lake was 183 feet deep! It was hard to imagine now, since we were in the middle of the desert!

From Fort Rock we drove out to the Summer Lake area. Devin duck hunts here every year with his Dad. We drove up on top of the mountain and ate our picnic lunch there. The view was beautiful. Unfortunately, A few years ago, the area was hit by a wild fire, but it was still a remarkably beautiful view. You can see the Summer Lake lake bed in the pictures, but during the summer there is no lake because the farmers and ranchers use it for irrigation. We drove about 40 miles on gravel/dirt road! And there was no one else to be seen. It was so peaceful. I think you would like this drive Dad.





On Sunday we visited our favorite church, besides Horizon and then headed to Drake Park. We played games in the park, watched the ducks and geese and then ate lunch. It is a beautiful park and so fun to walk the edge of the Deschutes River. Here's my new picnic backpack in action! After the park we headed to Old Mill mall to walk around and we even caught a movie! It was a great day.


So this may be my longest post so far. But hope you enjoy this small glimpse into our very fun and much needed, very relaxing vacation!

WHaT tHe LIZARD.....

Okay, I was driving through town today on my way back to work from lunch, when this car pulled up next to me........I thought to myself, why the crap would someone put a ginormous plastic lizard on their dash board?? That is gross and then I saw it......a claw moved! WHAT? So then I looked a little harder, and the WOMAN driving reached over and scratched under his chin and he stuck his tongue out......and then she started feeding it!!!! OH MY GOSH! I was totally freaked out.......so I JUST HAD to take a picture, as discretely as you can take a picture of someone in the car next to you! WEIRD, weird, WeIrD! That thing was HUGE!

A Night in Eugene

Since we were in Eugene, we decided to make it fun. We ordered pizza at a very cute pizza place, La Perla, and then headed down to skinner butte park to eat. After dinner we drove up to the top of the butte and watched the sunset, it was so beautiful!! We took way too many pictures! After the sunset we drove around town a little and found the Eugene Rose Garden, so we got out and walked around and it was amazing, so pretty and a little romantic ;) No pics of the Rose Garden though.....forgot the camera in the car.

At the park for dinner

aww, precious

He's cute

a self portrait mishap, but I thought it was funny, so I posted in anyway

The All About Nothing Post

It has been a while since I have posted, so I decided just to post a list of junk, a list of random thoughts I have today. Because I know that all of you are so disappointed when you check my blog and there is nothing new there.....right?!?

1. All I can think about is my vacation next week. I am soooo excited to have 10 straight days off. It is going to be amazingly fantastic. I will just be around town for most of the time, hopefully getting a pedicure, spending some time with friends and some time at the mall. You know, doing all the things that I would really like to be doing when I am normally sitting at my desk typing. And then i will spend Wed-Sun in LaPine and I am super excited for that! I am going to have a picnic at my favorite park in Bend, visit my favorite church in Bend, float in a raft in a beautiful lake, hike to a waterfall and have a picnic, sleep in late, watch movies and stay up late, eat ice cream and scrapbook the hours away. Doesn't that sound fun?? You probably want to come with me now.

2. Work stuff is still CrAzY! There are just so many things changing. Mostly making adjustments to the economic downturn and enrollment being down between 10 and 15%! YIKES! You would think that that may mean less work, but OHHHH no! Less staff usually equals more work for me. And it is hard to see people that you care about lose their jobs. It breaks my heart. But we have to trust that God has a plan, which of course He does.

3. I have been reflecting on my world traveling sisters, and how I have been nowhere cool outside the US. Well Kristie is technically is the US, but 150 miles from Russia is close enough to be considered outside the US to me! :) Nome Alaska, Puerta Vallarta, Tons of Places in Italy, Scotland, London, etc. Lucky girls! Why don't I ever do anything like that, well mostly because my sisters are neat, fun people and I am a chicken head. :) I have been to Mexico City though, and Skid Row in LA. And let me tell you that on Skid Row, you feel like you are on a whole other planet!! Anywho...instead of being jealous, I am just so thankful that they get to experience all those neat things, it is fun to picture them all there!

4. I have been house sitting for a family that I love, but let me tell you that they have a DEVIL cat. Jack the cat totally freaks me out! He hisses at me every time I come in the house. And I think, well do you want your food or not devil cat?!?! I am completely afraid of that stupid cat. If I told you all the things that I do to avoid the cat, you would mock me....so I will just move on now.

5. T.R.A.C. - This really could be a post by itself, but here it is nonetheless. You always hear parents talking about how proud they are of their kids, but how often do you hears kids talking about how proud they are of their parents? You see, my parents are camp directors for a camp called Teen Reach Adventure Camp. It is a camp specifically designed for abuse and neglected children who reside in the states foster care system. It is a special camp, and it takes special people to run it. These kids are not normal teen age kids, who can be a handful, these are teenage kids who have had a terrible life thrown at them. Kids who don't know if they have anyone that truly loves them, kids who have been repeatedly hurt by the people they were entrusted to, kids who don't know where they will be living next week, kids who deal with things way beyond their maturity level, kids who think they are nothing, unworthy and undeserving of love and a lot of the time act out because of it. And that is were T.R.A.C. comes in. These kids get to spend a whole weekend with responsible, fun adults that do nothing but build them up, instill confidence in them, boost their self-esteem, share with them who they can become, believe in them, and have a fun and SAFE time with them. And the most important thing that the volunteers are T.R.A.C. do is, be "Jesus with skin on" to these kids, who have been continually rejected and unloved. They show the kids that there are adults who can be trusted, but they show the kids the love that God holds for them, the most important love they will ever receive. I had the privilege of being slightly involved this year by helping my parents with some paper work and computer work. But, I got to see first hand how hard they work and the truly inspirational work they do. I am so proud of them. The things they do are tiring, emotionally draining, heart breaking and most of the time thankless. But they keep going knowing they are fulfilling the call God has put on their hearts, and they know that their reward comes in the form of a young person, who is a modern day orphan, realizing that God loves them, cherishes them, delights in them and that they are worth everything to Him, and although they may be parentless, they will always have a Father in Heaven who loves them more than anyone on this earth ever could. So, good job mom and dad. I am so proud of you. Thank you for being such a great example of selflessness.

6. Another story from T.R.A.C.: D was a counselor again this year at TRAC, and since I was working on computer stuff out there, I got to see him during his break in the evening. He told me about one of his campers, who had just turned 14. This camper was trying to test his limits, to see just how far he could push things without actually getting in trouble. Here is a conversation he had with D.

Camper: "If I did this.... would you beat me up?"
D: "no."
Camper: "Well what if I did this.......would you beat me up?"
D: "no."
Camper: What about this......would you beat me up?"
D: "no."
Camper: "Why wouldn't you beat me up?"
D: "Because I like you!"
Camper: "You like me?! Why do you like me?"

Oh man, doesn't that break your heart? Lord protect these kids and the special things you did in their hearts this weekend!