Flowers and girls

We spent an hour this morning at our neighbors garden, taking in all the beautiful flowers and trying to capture them on the camera. A few pictures of the girls taken this week also snuck in. About the car situation, we were able to trade the Subaru in for a newer model, we are very thankful that we have a dependable car now.

Red lillies

Clematis growing over an arbor with bench

Path through their woodland area

White dogwood tree

Purple poppies

Foxgloves-she had many different colors

Date drive up the gorge!

To celebrate Harry's successful completion of the naturalization exam and being sworn in as a United States citizen as well as me finally graduating college my folks offered to watch the girls for an afternoon. We decided to head up the Columbia River Gorge and check out whatever suits our fancy. First we followed the historic highway and almost got out to do a little hiking at Eagle Creek, but decided instead to head up to Hood River and see if there was any windsurfing action going on. We have never seen the river as calm as it was that day--the only thing in the water was a dog or two at the local hot spots. The next stop was a cherry farm up in Mosier--which had just started u-picking. Harry picked about 7 pounds while I took pictures of the amazing view of the river. From there we looped around on backroads to The Dalles and then the historic hightway back towards Mosier, stopping at Rowena. The wildflowers were pretty much past their peak, but there were abundant blue bacholer buttons. The day was quite hazy and the lighting rather flat, so the pictures really aren't too amazing. We headed back to Gresham and had dinner at Tad's on the Sandy River.

Tad's Chicken and Dumplings or as we call it, the Chick-Dump

Royal Anne cherries that will be ready for picking in July.

Harry sample a few fresh of the tree- juicy and sweet!

The trees were loaded!! We were told that this year is one of the best crops that the area has had in decades.

We had a wonderful day that unfortunately ended on a not so sweet note. Once again, we had car problems and had to call for a tow. Last week, on our trip up to Tacoma, we got off in Centralia for a quick break and had noticed the temp was all the way up to H and when we parked, coolant was leaking out. We called Triple AAA and got a tow to a local shop (boy, we are getting good at this), ended up renting a car to make it up to the graduation on time leaving our car for a couple days. After many tests and not much success in causing a reocurrence of the problem, the mechanic thought we needed a new radiator and temperature gauge. So, we had it fixed and the car was running fine......for just one week. A couple miles from home I heard a belt squeak and I made an offhand comment about belts only squeaking when they got wet. Well, we turned a corner and then we noticed the temp was all the way up and this time the car was steaming. We pulled over as soon as there was a shoulder, popped the hood, discovered coolant leaking again and lots of steam. Never have we been so glad to have Triple AAA! Once again a tow came to take the car to the garage. What has been the most frustrating is all the time and money spent in the last year for all the little things going wrong. So, a few days ago we started looking at cars and found one we really like, a basic model subaru outback with low miles. The hard part is convincing the credit union to give you a loan when you are unemployed. We had hoped to trade in the old Honda and keep the Subie, but now, after discovering that the head gaskets need replacing, we are keeping the 17 year old car and trading in the 10 year old, that is if we can get it to the dealer and get a loan. So, much frustration this week. Sometimes it feels that you keep getting hit when you are down and you just wonder how much more you are going to have to deal with. Many prayers are being said for guidance, instruction, help, patience, direction and pleas for a bend in the road to more stable times. At the moment, we are so stressed and discouraged. I know all things happen for a reason, but really, why all at once? Anyway, enough of my rambling. Hopefully the next posting will have better news. We appreciate prayers for the job search for Harry.

House projects, kids, graduation

Wow! It has been about a month since our last posting! The month of May was very busy for our family and June has started out the same. This posting is sadly out of order with the pictures and timeline.

Alyssa is now done with school and is officially a second grader! We were thankful for the wonderful first grade teacher she had and hope Alyssa likes her new teacher just as well. Alyssa celebrated the end of the year with the rest of the school on June 2, for field day. I was able to have lunch in the school cafeteria with Alyssa and then spend the afternoon watching the kids play at the 25 different stations. By far the biggest attraction was the face painting and tattoos, then throwing wet sponges at Mr. R's face (P.E. teacher who had his head sticking out of a large hole in a big board). Alyssa has a few days off before starting swimming lessons and then in a few weeks a reading program.

I am officially done with school!! Today was graduation and although I would of liked to have gone up to Spokane for the ceremony it didn't seem clear to go. I am very happy to be done and the girls are also glad mom won't head off to school anymore. Harry did a great job at being Mr. mom for a few weeks so I could really knock the assigments out to get done on time. MANY thanks to you Hubby!

Harry takes his naturalization test on June 17 and it looks like he is pretty well prepared. There are 100 questions of which he is asked 10. He has to get 6 correct to pass and also pass a written and verbal test to determine if he is fluent in english (he should ace that :) ).

We head up to Tacoma area for cousin P's high school graduation next week. Way to go!! We can't believe you are old enough to head off to college already! Isn't amazing how quickly kids grow up?

We have posted many pictures, most from the last week or so. My dad and Harry installed a railing in front of the porch. It is now done other than the final coat of paint. We primed it this evening but I didn't get a picture of it yet. Hopefully next week we can get it done and the rest of the petunias planted. We really like how it makes the porch more private as well as making our house a little different from the others that are a similar design.


Cooling off with some creme glacee on the deck. The middle girl is a neighbor.


Alyssa is trying to surf in her pool--good balance!

Face painting on Field day. Poor Alyssa has been really suffering from allergies and her eyes always appear a bit red. We hope to see her Dr. soon and find out what we can give her to relieve the symptoms.

We have some neighbors about three blocks away who live in an original farmhouse (our house is on part of the old farm) and they have two acres that are an amazing park-like paradise. Twice a year they open their property up to the public. We finally checked it out today and I was SO impressed! The folks who live there are very kind (grandparent-like...lovable, hugable....), probably early seventies, who invited the girls to come play in their garden anytime. Of course, I was drooling at the idea of all the photo opportunities...little girls playing tea....family photo shoots....girls dressed up like princesses.....I could think of endless ideas! There were colors of all kinds, deep greens in the shaded woodland area and gazebo, chipped wood paths weaving in and out of shrubs, flowers and trees, grassy areas surrounded by English gardens, an old garage fixed up and covered in vines.....it was beautiful!

Nice expression Lauren

Having some lunch and taking a break from the porch project.

Lauren just polished off a chocolate ice cream sandwhich, with much of it still on her face.

Another project, a screen/storm door. We have really enjoyed it!

Before starting the railing, the porch was fairly open. Now it feels a lot more cozy and private. I will post pictures when it is completed and the rest of the flowers are planted.