Farm Boy Ephraim milks a cow for the first time. He said it felt "squishy"

Heather's Graduation

The Best Thing about graduation was having my parents come down from Oregon and my best friend, Denise, attend too! I was so proud to have Reg and Ben there to see me in all my educational glory! It's so nice not to have my energy diverted...no more home work..HAH! Now back to the house work. My thesis was on "How does learning to read music affect reading English text for 'at risk' middle school students." My thesis is going to press this week! YAHOO I'm done.

Autumn promotes from 8th grade to High School!

Autumn was nominated for "Girl of the Year" at Windsor Middle School. She also recieved "Best in Strings" (viola) and "Best in Language Arts". She has a lot of friends and is an influence for good in her class. She will be in the Honors core in High School and is joining the debate team and the volley ball team. She teaches piano, violin, and viola but will be dropping some students to play volleyball...choices choices choices....and all good.

Have you seen my kids lately?

It seems that since I've gotten a digital camera I've completely

stopped doing photo albums. I rarely have time to blog so I'm not getting them up here AND they just sit on my computer in the thousands now...quite daunting. So today I'm eating the elephant one bite at a time. These three bites are little snatches of the joy in my life. Bite one. Spring and Autumn dressing the boys up just for fun!

Bite two. We went to San Francisco to Matt and Danielle's baby blessing and took this photo in the nursery because we don't have a family picture with Amie in it. And bite three is when I took Spring and her best friend out of school for her birthday and we got her ears pierced (family rule-age 12), got her contacts, and took her on a clothes shopping spree. WHEEEEEEEEE!!!!! Spring is a buzzy bee hive now and loves to go to YM/YW with Autumn and gets to go to girls camp. YAHOOO!!

Visiting Melba...Summer 2002

Just the thought of Grandma Melba makes a warm feeling well up inside of me. I remember special birthdays at her house during summer vacation. In particular I remember a cool cake with plastic animals on it. I remember camping with her and Grandpa. I loved her nails. She hasn’t aged a bit!! She looks like she has always looked, beautiful. I remember when she took us to the Enchanted Forest. I remember she took us to see the sea lions. I remember how Nathan and Adam drove her crazy and made her laugh. I remember how she loved me and was proud of me. I remember how she never missed a birthday then there got to be too many grandkids for her to keep up. I remember her wonderful stories of her life that she dutifully typed up for me for the family newsletter. She was always so supportive. I remember visiting her with my own family and we went to see Grandpa’s tree. It was special. I remember flying up to Portland and dropping in unannounced and without children! She was playing cards or something with her friends. Boy was she surprised. We went out to eat. I loved my special time with her. I remember her wonderful example of service. Her youthful outlook, her sense of humor, her faith in Christ. I am so glad she was born to be a blessing in my life. Happy Birthday Melba!!!

Home School Valentine Party

Ephraim's homeschool class had a valentine's Day Party. The children learned about good manners and the boys escorted the girls to the table. They did heart math and wrote kind things on valentine cards. We played do you love your neighbor and Somebody loves.....with the parachute. We also did the bee dance!

The world is so much more fun when children are around.

Beach Trip to Bodega Bay

I took the kids and a couple of their friends to the beach! It was so fun. I LOVE the BEACH! We flew a kite and built sand castles and shell museums and all the fun stuff you do at a beach.Spring's friends, Kelly and Lina, came with us. Amie is our new Foster Daughter. If you don't know which one she is, she's the little tyke with dark brown hair and blue eyes! We had a great picnic lunch and hiked out to the tide pools and got star fish and hermit crabs and all kinds of cool shells. We played baseball as well. Two teams of four. It was a blast.