Life's a beach!

So, with all the rain around here for spring break, we haven't had a ton of things to do.  Today was the first nice day all week and so I loaded up the kids (all by myself, I might add) and we headed to Lincoln City.

The girls were pretty excited about it, but Conner wanted to stay at home with friends.  I didn't give him the choice.  Because, well, quite frankly, I really didn't want to go either!  I don't like sand.  I don't like wind.  And I don't like cold.  ALL of those are at the Oregon Coast!

However, it turned out to be a really great day.  The drive was fairly quick (about 90 minutes each way) and we spent about 2 hours in Lincoln City before coming home.  Just enough for the kids to have fun, get cold and cranky, and then sugared up before heading out.

And, get this, I even remembered to bring my CAMERA.  So I have PROOF!!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I've been found!

As usual, I woke up this morning and checked my email.  Of my 17 messages, 15 of them were junk.  BUT there was 1 from facebook.

Someone was wanted to be my friend.  I was a little unsure of the name, but I had an idea.  Could it really be?  Really?

Guess what. It was my very very very bestest friend ever growing up!  She lived across the street from me from the time I was 12 until I moved away.  She was the kind of friend that let me pretty much live with her.  I have SOOO many memories that there is just no way I can narrow down a couple favorites.  Although, there are quite a few that bring a smile to my face trying to go over them all!  She was the friend that I loved to live life through.  She was always off on some mission or another and always had the best stories to tell!  I probably spent more nights in her big bed having sleepovers than I did in my own!  WOW.  She was my teen years!  I remember her as being an amazing writer and super creative.  She made me want to do better and be better.  Well, most times.  We did enough not being so good, too!  She was on of the bridesmaids in my wedding and then we pretty much lost touch.  I missed her.

I have spend a lot of time trying to find her again.  Well, this morning, there she was!  And she's close!  She still lives fairly local.  I'm so excited to get the chance to connect with her as an adult.  She is amazing and I can't wait to rekindle our friendship.

Thanks Tara, for taking the time to look for ME!  And thanks to facebook for making it happen!

My birthday gift

Before we left on Friday afternoon, Mike planted my new birthday tree.  It's a weeping cherry tree.  The plan is for it to "grow up" and kind of cover the beautiful utility boxes that we have in the front of our house (wonderful planning on someone's part... to put them there!).  This is also where the kids LOVE to play, so the thought was that the tree would also be a "fort" for them when it gets bigger.  I love the shape and can't wait until it has some blooms on it!

Happy Birthday... to me!

Yesterday was my birthday and Mike and I went out of town for the weekend. We went over to central Oregon to stay at Eagle Crest Resort. It's a fun and close getaway. My sister lives about 30 minutes from the resort, so we took Conner with us and dropped him off her house for the weekend. On friday night, after we dropped him off, we went out to dinner with her and her husband. I don't know if we had ever done that before. We went to a little (very little) mexican restaurant in Tumalo. Then we headed back to the resort KID FREE!!! Yeah. We had a good time on Saturday playing tennis and hot tubbing, watching movies and just relaxing! Sunday we slept in!!! That's nice! Anyway, it was a fun weekend and here are some pics from our drive back.

Oh, did I forget to mention that there was a snow storm over the pass on the way back?? Yep. There was!

Mike putting chains on the Honda.

The view of the side of the road.  Very pretty.

Still working on chains.

Conner just HAD to get into the action!

More pics of my yard

So, as we should all know by now...

I get completely obsessed with something for a couple weeks, then I lose it and start something new...

Well, lately it's been my yard.

I have really enjoyed finding new plants and shrubs for my new yard. Here are the latest pictures that I took yesterday.

There Rebecca.  Are you happy now???  Thrilling isn't it!

Daytime pics of my new yard

So, I'm learning that this is a work in progress. I have been down to the local plant shop everyday this week. Luckily it's pretty close by. But I think I've spent a small fortune buying bulbs and perennials and annuals flowers. But I've totally been enjoying myself and it's fun to see something new everyday. The grass definitely needs some work. A lot of work. But that will be fun to work on too!

Anyway, here are some pics that I took today.

Notice the backpack and uniform.  Conner hadn't even walked in the door yet, and he was planting some new ground cover.

Corner of the yard.  I LOVE this tree.  I have no idea what it is, but it is all red.  It looks like it's glowing in the morning.

More of the side of the yard

And still more of the side of the yard.

Side yard and the fence.

Front window and porch thingie

Front walk from the house looking down to the street.

Cute little planter box that I picked up yesterday.

There really are cute flowers in there, just hard to see 'em!

Another of the walkway.  From the driveway this time.

Standing back view of the front yard from the driveway.

Conner, hard at work.

Front yard from the road.

"Mom, it's ok that I have a duck on my face"

HUH?

This is what Adrie came down and told me tonight. Conner had been spinning her around in his room and of course, the second that he put her down she stumbled into his desk. She now has a huge goose egg on her forehead. Guess that's close to a duck, huh?

A family night to remember!

We had plans to have family night with our good friends, the Allens. I forgot that Ann-Elise had her doctor's appointment too, so I was in a mad rush to get everything prepped and ready early in the day so it would all get done. So, as I was sitting in the front room reading last night, waiting for dinner to finish cooking, I looked out the window and saw my friend Lisa drive up. I thought it was odd. She hadn't mentioned anything about stopping by and it is unusual for her to just "stop by". She wasn't getting out of her vehicle very quickly either, so I walked out to her. I asked her what she was doing "Oh, just feeding Charlie (her baby). " Um, ok. I asked her what she'd been doing and we chatted for about 10 minutes at her car. All of the sudden, here comes a red truck with trees in the back. I just looked... "What is Todd (her husband) doing here? And why are there a bunch of trees in the back of the truck?" Then, here comes another friend, Scott. With bark. They came to "make over" our yard! Trees, plants, bark and all! The Allen's got here soon after and they unloaded and Joe started to help Todd, Scott and Mike. Then Scott's wife comes with a big bowl of cookie dough (Bridget is known for her amazing cookies!). All together, we had 18 kids here. However, you'd never know it! The guys finished the yard in about an hour! It was amazing. How cool is that?

We ate dinner (a little late) with the Allens and had a great meal. Then we had our family home evening lesson on choosing the right. It was amazing. It was one of the best nights I've had in a long time in many different ways! I feel so blessed to have such amazing friends. Those that come and donate their time and resources, and those who are my friends! Thanks to you all!!!

Once again, these pics are in the wrong order.  Sorry!

The finished product on one side of the front yard.  You can't really see all the cool little plants.  I'll have to take some more pics to day, in the light.

My lilac tree and some plants under my front window.

I'm not sure what these are called.  But it's all cool!

The front walk way.

Kids playing and the guys almost done.

Getting the last of the bark.

The kids working hard.   They were a great help!

Spreading bark.

Are these girls cute, or what?  Chloe, Adrie and Lucy.

The kids all played so well together!

Calie's a little helper girl.  What a little trooper!

More bark!

Digging holes and more holes and more holes...

Todd planting my "friendly neighbor" tree

A nice shot of Mike's back end!

Planting, digging and bark what fun!

Work, work, work.  But man, it looks great!