Dad and the Dukes in Town

Just last week Jared's dad spent several days with us. It was wonderful to spend time with him and for him to see what our lives are like here in Vancouver. As always, he was a super handy-man, hanging hooks and making storage shelves for the garage. Really it was a multi-dad effort, with the design for the shelves coming from my dad, and the labor from Jared's. They were a great team! I was able to go on a dinner outing with dad to thirty floor high Portland City Grill. It was quite breathtaking.

On Labor Day, Wally and I went with Jared down to school and helped him prepare for the first day of classes the next day. Neither of us had seen where he was going to be working, so it was a great experience for both of us. The work room at the school was an awesome little craft center... I was able to play with all sorts of fun tools while making hall passes and bulletin boards with the guys.

While Wally was here, the Dukes overlapped a few days on their move from Indo to Idaho. It was great to have so many people connected to Indo in the same place. If we had just had Joan here too it would have been perfect. Jared had a couple mega-gatherings in the house, one at which we played an interactive, lights out game of mafia. He can't wait to play again. Hopefully by then we will have some curtains up to block out the street lights.

Thursday Wally flew out to New York to meet up with Cinda and Matt before conferences in Idaho. As always, the goodbyes were hard, but it is reassuring to know we will see him again this spring.

Kat & Caleb

Kat & Caleb are married!!! We had the pleasure of hosting the newlyweds for a day before they were able to move into their new Portland apartment. Jared and I both had the day off, so were able to help with the move. The trusty Hazel Dell moving truck hit the road again and was once again stuffed full. When we arrived at the new apartment, the most exciting part was that it was Kat & Caleb's first time seeing where they would live! They'd had a friend check it out for them while they were preparing for the wedding in Colorado. Thankfully it is a great place and they are not disappointed in the least. We are super excited for them and have already loved getting to see them more than once a year.

The newlyweds amongst a maze of furniture

A Few Days in Seattle

There is a bit of catching up to do here. It has been almost three weeks now since Jared and I made a short trek up to Seattle. The WRX's need for its 60,000 mile maintenance was a great excuse to go back home. We spent most of the time at my mom & dad's place. We had decided to bring Awas & Samba along to see how they liked travelling (and my parents dogs). On the way up we were starting to wonder if we'd made a mistake... there was over an hour of meowing when we first headed out from Vancouver. Thankfully they finally fell asleep and all was well. On the trip back home they rough housed in the little cage for a while, then slept for almost 5 hours (we made quite a few stops on the way home). They can now definitely be considered car cats.

The first morning at my parents we introduced them to Sadie, my parents cat. Our cats didn't mind the meeting, but Sadie threw a "hissy fit". Samba and Awas responded to that attitude in kind. We had never seen cat tails so puffy. Awas and Samba were very scared of the dogs at first, but slowly became more curious. If we had stayed longer we are certain that they would have started to have some fun.

While the guys did most of the work on the car, my mom took me to a few local nurseries and walks around her garden. Becca came with and helped me pick out a few plants to take back home.

On the last day there, we were able to connect up with a couple of friends. Jannelle had just interviewed for a new job and was offered the position in the interview, so we were especially blessed to be able to celebrate that success with her. After that we headed down to Pike's Place to meet up with Robb for a few minutes at the yummy french bakery. Our last stop was at the Meeuwse's place in Kent. We caught the end of Cris & Amy's soccer game and met some of the Meeuwse relatives from Holland. All in all it was a busy few days, but the rushing around was well worth it to spend time with so many people we care about.

New Heights Summer Festival

With New Heights' Summer Festival going on, Jared has been home for the past two weeks. It is so nice to have my husband actually living in the same house! We have hosted little gatherings with old and new friends most evenings, or gone out to Summer Festival events. We have played Settlers more times than I can count, introducing quite a few people to the game. Jared has played it about 95% of the nights that I am at work. It is amazing that he isn't sick of it yet.

Summer Festival is one of the most intense conglomerations of church events I have ever seen. The highlight so far was the dodgeball tournament. There were some teams that dressed to impress on that occasion! My team made it to the semifinals, where having a husband for a referee did not advance us on any further. =)

For the indoor soccer tournament, we were going to be on a killer team with quite a few other MK's from Indo and beyond. Unfortunately we looked a little too intimidating so the teams were set up at random. Somehow Jonathan, Anthony, Kevin Pust, and Alex Lee all ended up on one team. I don't remember the final scores, but they were definitely one of the top teams. After playing the last game with his own team (which dominated), Jared stepped onto my team and played goalie. He was a drastic improvement to any of us that had played goalie prior, yet he let one goal in, thus we lost without scoring a point all tournament! Sad day. After the tournament ended all the MK's and a few other avid soccer players stuck around and we played a "real" game of indoor.

As a break between the nights of the tournaments, we decided to take it easy by going rock climbing. Wow, that is a work out. Jared made it up the two hardest climbs that were set up. I only tried the second to hardest one, but probably an hour after starting, I did eventually conquer the rock. What an amazing sport. Going down stairs was a little tricky and I could barely grip anything at work for the next three days.

Last night Jared was part of the evening show for Summer Festival. Rather than bobbing for apples, he and a few other brave souls bobbed for hot dogs in a trough of watered down baked beans and who knows what else. On of the guys dislike baked beans so much that he didn't actually open his mouth when he bobbed, but instead just plunged his head into the sludge as show of being a very good sport.

Summer Festival is drawing to a close, which means Jared is off on one last trip of the summer. When he comes back he will jump right into the schoolyear with a likely coaching position for Middle School volleyball starting the 23rd and his first orientation day for teaching the 27th. He is super excited, but a little nervous too. There are still a lot of things to figure out before the kids arrive. At this point he doesn't even know all the equipment that will be available. Thankfully Jared is resourceful enough to make due with however much or little equipment there is.

We will keep you posted on Jared's job and coaching news as we find out more.

More Than Just Dirt

There is finally more green than brown in our yard! The grass seed has started to pop up and the trees have been planted. Jared was home for a few days this weekend, so we took some time to rearrange the landscaped plants to make them feel like ours. I've also had the last two days off and have made some major progress on the backyard. I am wanting a lush flowerful garden, but have come to realize that to make a bare yard into one overnight would cost a fortune. In an attempt to save some money for house payments =), I have been bargain hunting for plants. It's not such an easy thing to do. Lowe's sells some plants for $1-2 when they look like they are on their last leg and I found some very health plants there, the only problem with them was that all the flowers were old... I cut them off and the plants look great! I have also been able to find quite a few plants that will attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Here are some photos of a couple plants:

One of the neighbors trees hangs over the fence into our yard and is conveniently perfect for the birdfeeder. I am yet to see any birds use it (but I did only put it up today).