A Weekend at Dad's

As many of my family readers know, I spent the past weekend visiting Dad, Pam and Sara at their home in Scappoose, Oregon. We had a wonderful, relaxing weekend. No agenda but to enjoy one another's company. I have included some photos of the highlights of our weekend. We had beautiful weather while I was there. The past three times I have been, it has been rainy and dreary. Saturday and Sunday it was clear in the mid 60s. Wonderful!


On Sunday afternoon we carved pumpkins. This is the big one we all worked on. Dad and Pam grew this huge pumpkin, 40 pounds, in their own garden. Sara and I found a creepy face from the Internet to carve into it. Here is Dad and I with the finished product before we cleaned off the front of all the ink.
Here is the work in progress. Forgive my shaky hands. The walls of this pumpkin were so thick that Dad was the only one who had the strength to carve the face.

Sara cleaning out the pumpkin guts. She was all excited to do it, and then when she reached in and felt how slimy they were, she changed her mind. That task then fell to me!

On Saturday afternoon, Dad and Pam worked in the garden while Sara and I sat outside and read on the porch. Here is Dad taking a little break after pruning all the plants and pulling up all the roots. You can't tell from this picture, but he feels happy, healthy, and is in good spirits trusting in the Lord.

I took advantage of the clear day to try and capture some of the views their home affords. This is looking out their back window. You can't tell from this picture, but right off the corner of the overhang on the left is an excellent view of Mount Saint Helens.

Again this picture doesn't show it very well, but looking outside from the front door you see all these beautiful trees that go up the hill they live on. If you go out onto their driveway, you can see houses tucked away all the way up the hill behind beautiful fall trees.

Dad in the garden! You can see some of the trees at the top that I referred to above.

Here is Sara and I on Saturday afternoon. One fun thing about the trip was having her around. She had been in Texas the past two times I had come to visit, so naturally, she was very excited to have me there. She idolized everything I did. I have never had a younger sibling to look up to me and want to do everything I did. I remember feeling that way about my brother, so it was kind of neat to have her to play with and enjoy.

All in all it was a great trip. Dad seems healthy and like he has bounced back from surgery. I have much anticipation that the Lord will make the next part of this journey for him as successful as the first. Love to you Dad, Pam, and Sara.

November 10...

...is moving day!

After much prayer, a little anxiety,and a ton of uncertainty, Dave and I will be moving (again) into a house on Nov 10. And not just any house....Mom's house! Now before anyone thinks that we are moving in with my mother, let me explain.

When mom married in September, she and her new husband moved into his house in Dallas. Mom had just purchased and renovated her home in Grapevine last Christmas, so she wasn't ready to let it go just yet. And in addition, she didn't want to have to fight the ever declining housing market in our country and risk loosing money on her investment. So, enter Dave and I, who spoke with our landlord, found a subleaser, and are moving into moms newly carpeted, fresh painted, beautiful landscaped, much larger house! We will "rent" from her for a while, and then when the time is right, Mom is going to sell to us for a great deal.

I am so excited. Lately, Dave and I, all our hobbies, my school work and working from home, have been getting a little too big for our 1100 square feet. I am thrilled about having some extra space and a WALK IN CLOSET!

So...who wants to help us move on Nov 10?????

Fair Day!

This past Saturday I did something I have never done in my 20 years of living in Texas.....I went to the State Fair. Jon and Lydia go every year, and they invite another couple to go with them every year. This year, we were that lucky couple!!! We had so much fun, ate some great food, and had very tired feed by the end of the day. For those of you who don't live in the area, the state fair is held at Fair Park in Dallas. The Fair Park area is home to the majority of Dallas's museums. We visited the African American Museum, where the fair day feature was a guy who has is known for his card stacking abilities. This particular day, he was attempting to break the world record for the tallest card building ever build. He was about 20 feet up (maybe more) on some scaffolding building this card tower...really neat to see. We also visited the Science museum, where I got to play weather girl in their Natural Disaster exhibit.


There were tons and tons of carnival type games, of course, and this one featured some Harry Potter themes. Of course, I had to have my picture taken with the world's best wizard!

Outside one of the museums was this huge mammoth statue. Lydia and I just couldn't resist.

Of course one of the huge attractions to the state fair of Texas is all the food. They fry just about everything there. Between the four of us we ate one candied apple, two funnel cakes, two plates of Nachos Supreme, a Frito chili pie, curly fries, a gyro sandwich, cotton candy, fried Snickers bar, cheesecake on a stick, a corn dog, fried cookie dough, fried cafe latte, turkey leg, and lots of dr. pepper.

And of course, here is Big Tex, reminding everyone to have a safe, fun, and friendly fair day. And we did!