Mark's Visit Home

Happy hour at Casa del Matador on NW 23rd to celebrate Mark's visit home. He's been in Bogota, Colombia for 3 years as an officer in the Foreign Service and will now be doing a year long assignment in Kabul, Afghanistan. I'm sure I'm getting his actual title wrong, but he will be a director of business development primarily focusing on agriculture. As always, he is an incredibly intelligent, driven and hard working man.

Cheryl and Markme and Mark
Cindy and Mark
Katie and Mark
Lisa and MarkJust like the old days...Mark with all of the girls :)
We miss you and will be praying for a safe and successful year!

Dad's 70th Birthday!

Celebrated Dad's 70th birthday (and Mother's Day and Mike's birthday) at the View Point Inn in Corbett! It's an old building, in the National Historic Register, that is currently a small inn and restaurant. We had a delicious brunch there. Extremely well fed.

The grounds are beautiful, and we were blessed with gorgeous weather!
View of the Gorge
Dad doesn't look, act or feel 70. I think 70 must be the new 50!Happy Birthday Mikey!

One last time...Storm and the Balls

Saw what will probably the last show for a very long time of Storm and the Balls. They played a ton of their old stuff. A really great show even though it was a bit sad.

Thank y0u for reserved front row seating! Cousin Jackie, her beau David and friend Laura:
The only camera we had was my Blackberry, but it was so dark that the slow shutter speed made everything blurry. So let's consider them moody with a rock-n-roll vibe :)Our favorite Ball, Davey Nipples

Prince of Peace Retreat

Annual Prince of Peace Women's Retreat at Cannon Beach. Lovely weekend with Anne and Deb-o and their church friends. I am an honorary Lutheran during that weekend :) This year's theme was "Who Do You Think You Are" and we did all sorts of exercises and projects looking at what makes us who we are, if we think others see us differently than we see ourselves, the gifts that Christ has given us in our characteristics, etc. We had some free time to walk along the beach, go through the shops and of course visit Bruce's Candy Kitchen.We stayed in the same cute little bungalow as last year. Quaint with original moldings and fireplace (maybe from the 40's?) but updated furniture. I think the wiring needs to be updated though. Anne blew a fuse with her hairdryer and ended up with a hand covered in soot!
We also had time to do some fun crafty things. Girls enjoy that kind of stuff. Made some really cute magnets with Anne's guidance and beaded an awesome green bracelet with Deb-o's beads. All of my other bracelets sucked, but the first one I made was perfect!

It was a wonderful weekend. As Anne would say, it was full of "fun, food and fellowship" :)

D355 Holiday Party

Dana and Julie had their district holiday party at Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, WA again this year, and it was just as fabulous as last year! Delicious food, fun people, dancing, good times. I'm waiting for Julie's/Marchelle's pics since I only have these 2 so far.

with Lisa and Renee, 2 of the reasons I love going to work!
Lisa and me, our traditional party self portrait!

Deb-o's Wedding

Finally getting around to posting photos from Debbie and Mike's wedding last December. Really lovely wedding for really lovely people.
Anne, sister of the bride, and Kristin, best friend of the bride
Sexy Crystal and me
Brittany and her dad, the groom
mothers of the groom and bride
Anne and Ron
with Deb-o and our godsons, Nathan and Colin
Deb-o surprised Mike with a UO groom's cake. They ended their honeymoon by flying from Hawaii to the Rose Bowl on the way home!
Besties :)

Early Spring!

blue sky, sunshine, 60 degrees, FEBRUARY!

got nothin' more to say

GRRRR

Good Dog!

Speaking of Christmas, here's a picture of Bacchus in front of Dawn and Mike's enormous tree.He's a happy dog!

Mt Hood

I love Mt Hood! It's so pretty and is just the most perfect mountain ever! I feel lucky that I get to see it every day going to work.

I took the picture below on Christmas Eve day when I was driving to my parents'. We had a couple of weeks of really cold but blue and sunny weather. It was awesome. The mountain looked way bigger in person so this isn't the best shot, and the stupid sign is in front of it. Plus I was trying to drive and use my Blackberry camera at the same time. (I don't do that anymore since driving and phoning are illegal in Oregon without a hands free device.) But here she is...

Life is too busy to blog

I'm way behind. Definitely plan on catching up about real stuff but decided to post what's in my head right now, and that's Geddy Lee. I heart him.I know he doesn't have what some would call classic good looks, but I would so marry him. He's an amazing bass player. He rules you.