Happy # 50 Crystie

This weekend was the big event of The Dalles for the year... Cherry Festival! :) Peter was "volunteered" to volunteer for a few hours down there on Saturday morning... so here's a bit of his enthusiasm:

We spent the rest of our weekend (ie: Saturday afternoon/evening) helping Crystie turn 50. That's a big job! :-) Here some pics of the fun, and CUTE kids!

Natalie made this awesome apricot cheesecake...YUM-O
I'll apologize ahead of time that I didn't get ANY good pictures of the birthday girl, but I will assure you that 50 looks good on her!

Like brother, like sister... (Amy & Daniel Anderson)We played "throw the bean bag in the hole" for awhile... I'm sure there's an official name for it, it's kind like golfing minus the golf clubs & balls, w/bean bags instead. Hmm, maybe it's more like shot-put...?

This was my ONLY one that made it in the hole. I was SO proud... :-)Audrey with great-grandbaby JacqueKat showing us how it's all supposed to happen...Jacque workin' out!Cousins! Alanna, Kat & Lucy - (sorry I couldn't get the reflection on Kat's glasses to go away)

Peter's down with a cold again... :-( Daniel was kind enough to share the germs. :-) And tonight was our workers last gospel meeting, they're on their way back to Burns now, and then off for convention preps!
Hope you all had a nice weekend!

Update: Our Life 101

I do believe I am quite a pathetic excuse for a blogger! I will wear my cool blogger sweatshirt in shame now.

However, I will TRY to redeem myself in this update!

Life has been SO busy... where to start? Maybe where I left off in the last update:
The point of renting the rototiller 2 weeks ago was to get the soil ready for a new driveway / sprinkler system / GRASS! Anywho, none of that is in yet, but we do have some great ideas! Peter bought some round-up the other day (that stuff is spendy by the way), and is working on eradicating all of our stubborn weeds. After a very expensive quote to have a sprinkler system installed for us, I think maybe Peter's going to try to do it "a la carte." (any volunteers/ditch diggers would be greatly appreciated) After the sprinklers are in, we will look into getting the driveway poured... then comes the hydroseeding. - So that's the progress in the landscaping arena.
The last two weekends Peter has been working hard at his folks place. He's been replacing all the sinks/faucets, shower heads and light fixtures. He did a great job, it has turned out so nice! Last Friday we spent the night at Tom and Audrey's, so he could get an early start on the project. (if you want to hear about his early start, you'll have to email him, as he tells the story so much better than I!) After an afternoon of work, (him working on the house, myself on homework) Christy, Mara & Pammie and girls came over for a lasagna feast. Peter promptly went back to work. With one faucet, one light and two shower heads left, low-and-behold his work pager goes off. So, we drop all and race back to The Dalles. (~1 1/2 hr drive) Arrive home 11:30-ish and crash in bed. So, today we ran back out there and Peter finished up the rest of the fixtures. Here's some pics of his bee-ewe-tea-ful work:

Bathroom Faucets (4)Shower Heads (2)

Bathroom Light Fixtures (3)

Dining Room Chandeliers (2)

Kitchen Faucet (1) - (insert Peter's faucet saga here)

After he finished there, we headed over to NWOMS (an oral suregeon that Peter does IT work for) and he cleaned up some of their problems.

Then, off shopping! I haven't been in quite a long time, and it was SO fun! That is one thing that I miss living here, is the amount (or lack thereof) of retail shopping! :-) But Portland isn't too far... Here's some of my finds:

I LOVE this!!!New Running Shoes! They make me WANT to run!Ok, I best wrap this up... Hope you all had a great weekend!

Busy Saturday...

Peter rented a rototiller for the weekend, and churned up the property... it's looking so much better! We spent the better part of the day (after he rototilled) raking and raking and raking. I think we would have been better off starting a rock quarry on this place! There's more rock here than dirt. After a few hours of sifting through the rock (with hopes of finding some dirt), it started raining. Now, don't get me wrong, I do like the rain, but NOT RIGHT AFTER THE SOIL'S BEEN TILLED! Argh!!! Alas, we continued to rake in the rain. I admit, it was refreshing, but it just weighted down the soil making it heavy to sift through...
Anyway, every muscle in my body hurts, but I'm making the best of it by complaining to any listening ears.
Oh, here's pictures of the progress.
BEFORE:
From the deck downstairs...
First sweep with the rototiller. Don't be fooled, the green is not grass, just weeds!
AFTER:
The water puddle is from the 'tiller getting washed. This will all be grass soon... hopefully!Up top... All the dirt areas in this pic should be grass too...From below, looking up. The "driveway" looking part in the middle will be paved, and on either side of it will be grass.That's all folks. Hope everyone has a nice Sunday...